A letterpress art print of “Pillars of Creation,” as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Nb – Due to the halftone nature of this art piece, our camera had difficulty capturing it, and some screens are having difficulty displaying it! Apologies if it appears with strange crosshatching or “webbing” on your screen.

Nb – This limited art print was fully reserved in two hours! We have a few (under five) Épreuve d’Artiste with small imperfections. Steadfast collectors who missed the edition are welcome to inquire.

In 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope – a joint venture between the American, Canadian, and European space agencies – launched into orbit. It soon began relaying extraordinary images of outer space. The telescope is so powerful that it can capture light hundreds of millions of lightyears away – meaning that it literally sees back into our cosmic past. Our imagination has been captured by the imagery from this awesome invention. The “Pillars of Creation,” a formation of gas and space dust in the process of creating new stars, are particularly striking.

We have printed the “Pillars of Creation” letterpress. Yes, letterpress.

Today, letterpress is usually used for fine typography, woodblock and line artwork. But it has always been capable of reproducing photography through a painstaking process of halftone platemaking, four-color inking, and overprinting with exact registration. For “Pillars of Creation”, it felt worthwhile to resurrect this process.

This is, so far as we can tell, the first time that an image from the James Webb Space Telescope has been reproduced letterpress. This art print is extremely limited. It is actually No Reply’s smallest limitation of any edition yet – only twenty six lettered copies.

EDITION NOTES

• Edition of 26 lettered prints.

• Printed letterpress from four halftone plates in cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (that is, transparent black) to optically create a photorealistic image.

• On the legendary Zerkall-būtten, a now-defunct mouldmade paper.

• Each sheet is roughly 10 by 13 ½ inches and each artwork is 5 by 10 inches. 

• We have teamed up with the Portland West Elm to offer gallery framing. Each frame is made with FSC-certified hardwood, using acid-free matting, tempered glass, and handsome joiners for sophisticated museum quality.