Untitled work by Craig Vaughn Fisher

Fisher's untitled prints generally avoid the overt narrative or topographical content of historical ukiyo-e, locating themselves instead in the contemplative tradition of postwar mokuhanga. The medium identifier in his catalogue refers to nishiki-e-style multi-block color printing using water-based pigments, washi paper, and hand pressure from a baren rather than mechanical press impression. Each block is carved by hand from cherry or shina, and registration between blocks is managed by kentō notches cut directly into the wood. Without a title to direct interpretation, attention falls to the print's material qualities — the visible grain of the wood telegraphed through pigment, the slight bleed at block edges where ink met dampened paper, and the soft transitions of bokashi gradation. Fisher's location in Toledo, Ohio, places him within the wider American adoption of mokuhanga over the past two decades, a movement supported by the International Mokuhanga Conference and similar gatherings.