Peel of Print 8

Peel of Print 8 closes the series. In this final print the peeling operation appears at a scale that re-organizes the sheet entirely, with the relationship between exposed substrate and remaining print no longer reducible to figure-and-ground. The print thereby resolves the procedural inquiry of the preceding seven sheets without arriving at a fixed image vocabulary, leaving the technique open for further use in subsequent bodies of work. This kind of serial, procedural conclusion is consistent with contemporary Japanese print practice as taught at the principal print institutions — Kyoto Seika University, Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Design, and Joshibi University of Art and Design — through which Abe has moved as student and as faculty. The series as a whole sits outside the iconographic categories of historical [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) such as [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e), and [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e), and contributes instead to an ongoing reconsideration of what the printed surface can be. Peel of Print 8 functions as the series's terminal proposition and as a starting point for the work that follows.