Trevor Hickman’s block cut (Brewhouse Broadsheets, 1967) remake of a Mathias Huss wood cut. Huss’ original, published in Lyon in 1499, was from a folio he cut for an edition of the so-called Dance of Death, ‘La grât danse macabre’.
It is the first known image of a printing press or bookseller, and actually represents the full process of publishing as a synthesised flow. From left to right in the image you can see: Death; compositor; Death; puller 1; puller 2; Death; and a bookseller. In the few lines of French dialogue that accompany this momento mori Death tells the publishing foursome to come swiftly; to leave their euqipment, presses and cases; and not to try to conceal any faults, for it is in the work that one knows the workman.