Untitled work by Karen Helga Maurstig

This untitled work is a fifth sheet from Maurstig's Mokumap series, in which the registered structure of mokuhanga is used to evoke the conventions of cartography. Multiple blocks, printed in sequence with water-based pigments and a baren, lay down zones, edges, and notations that read as topography or survey without describing a fixed location. Washi absorbs pigment into its fibers rather than holding it on the surface, giving overlapping passages a soft, embedded quality that suits map-like content where boundaries are provisional. Maurstig's practice extends across mokuhanga, drypoint, and letterpress, and the Mokumap series reflects her interest in the printed sheet as both image and document. The work sits within an active international community of contemporary mokuhanga artists, many of whom, like Maurstig, came to the medium through residencies such as NAPP and the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory rather than through the historical workshop lineage in Japan.