Untitled

This untitled woodblock print belongs to the period of Lee's practice-based doctorate in visual arts, completed while she worked as an editioning printmaker at Northern Editions Printmaking studio in Darwin. Practice-based doctoral research in printmaking treats studio output as the primary mode of inquiry, with the resulting prints, books, and objects forming the body of evidence the thesis interprets. For Lee, this means each print is both a finished work and a node in a longer investigation. Mokuhanga lends itself well to this kind of slow, iterative research: each block records a discrete decision, each impression layers prior decisions, and the final sheet retains traces of its own making in a way more direct relief media often suppress. The carved block preserves the gesture of the cutting tool; the [kozo](/glossary/kozo) [washi](/glossary/washi) preserves the moisture history of the printing session; the registration preserves the artist's geometric thinking. As a research artifact, the print is unusually legible.