IMC 2024 Echizen submission

This 2024 work was produced for the International Mokuhanga Conference, an event that gathers practitioners of Japanese water-based woodblock printing from across the globe. The Echizen designation refers to the washi from Fukui Prefecture used as the printing substrate — a long-fibered kozo paper prized for its strength under repeated baren passes and its capacity to absorb successive layers of pigment without buckling. Submission prints for IMC exhibitions are typically produced in a constrained format that allows for portfolio assembly and international circulation, encouraging artists to demonstrate technical range within a small surface. Danhieux's contribution sits within the contemporary American mokuhanga current, where practitioners apply the traditional toolkit — sharpened to-knives, multiple registered blocks, nori-mixed water-based pigment — to imagery drawn from outside the historical Japanese repertoire. The Echizen paper amplifies the soft tonal gradations and translucent color layering that distinguish mokuhanga from Western oil-based relief printing, qualities central to the medium's appeal for artists working internationally.