When Is A Print Not A Print?

After the sunny day yesterday we are back to the gloomth and the grey today. Oh well, it should encourage us all to make hay whilst the sun shines.

Lot's of great feedback about the current exhibition, people are really pleased to see someone of Brians' calibre taking part in Purbeck Arts Weeks.
It is really important that people get to see a broad spectrum of art during this fortnight. I hope that it is both aspirational and inspirational.

Yesterday it was framing, today is printing and printmaking. This has become a minefield for many an unsuspecting purchaser of art.
I am a fine art printmaker and produce original prints in fairly small editions.

Edition 
A set of identical prints made from the same plate. Often a number of other prints – artist’s proofs, printer’s proofs, bon à tirer, andhors commerce (“not for trade”) prints – are made at the same time but are not considered to be part of the numbered edition. Each print in a limited edition is usually numbered in the lower left-hand margin. The form of this inscription is as follows: number in the edition/size of the edition (i.e. 15/50). To guarantee a limited edition, the artist or printer can “strike” the plate by incising an X on the printing face after completion.

There you have the correct technical definition of an edition. It is this very clarification that seems to be causing the problem. Now in virtually every gallery you can see giclee* prints that use the same editioning that was once solely used for fine art print. I have had some very upset people who have spent real money on a giclee print thinking that they had bought an original print. A limited edition of 500 is not really that limited or original and that's the problem. Ever the optimist I think that if the print is signed it may hold it's value. Definitely worth checking that something has been hand signed as opposed to a signature programme.

Giclée 
(zhee-clay) n. 1. a type of digital fine-art print. 2. Most often associated with reproductions; a giclée is a multiple print or exact copy of an original work of art that was created by conventional means (painting, drawing, etc.) and then reproduced digitally, typically via inkjet printing.

It is up to people who sell prints to ensure that people know what they are buying. It is a necessary evil that technology is allowing more people to access art via high quality reproductions but for the artists who are still trying to make a living from selling original works this will have some impact not particularly postively.