Exhibition guide

Mirroring the exhibition “The Engraver and the Sortilèges”, dedicated to the worlds, figures and visions of the Danish artist Lars Bo, “The Engraving Factory” offers a decentering of the gaze.

Visit details

  • Dates: From Friday April 17, 2026 to Saturday July 11, 2026: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
  • Venue: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, 6 rue Valette, Paris
  • Price: free
  • Audience: All audiences
  • Source: Event page

About the exhibition

This parallel exhibition therefore invites the visitor to enter the Danish artist's studio and follow, step by step, the genesis of an engraved image.

Engraving is often perceived as a result: the print, the printed and distributed image. Engraving is rather constructed in a constant dialogue, even if sometimes harsh, between the intention, the gesture of the artist on the one hand, and the resistance of the material on the other.

By revealing behind the scenes of creation, “The Factory of Engraving” does not seek to dispel the mystery of Lars Bo's images but, on the contrary, to focus attention on what is their source. An engraver in the full sense of the term, Lars Bo maintains an intimate relationship with the material: copper, attacked then reworked; However, it is, above all, a process, made up of tests, repetitions, patient gestures using specific tools. The marvelous, the disturbing, the fantastic are not born only from the artist's imagination: they take shape in the rapidity of the movement of the first sketches on the fly, in the patient preparatory attempts, in the slow work of the plate, in the repetition of gestures, and in the acceptance of hazard.By presenting the aboveink, spread then wiped; Mirroring the exhibition “Le Graveur et les sortilèges”, dedicated to the universes, figures and the paper, chosen, pressed. The objective of this exhibition is therefore to break down the main stages of Lars Bo's work: from the first draft to work on the copper plate, from the engraver's instruments to inking, until the decisive moment of printing.

The objects presented (sketches, plates, tools, proofs) come directly from the artist's studio and are on loan from Ludmilla Balfour-Hess, Miranda Roux, daughters of visions of Lars Bo, “The Factory of Engraving” offers a decentering of the gaze. Each stage of the engraving process involves aesthetic as well as technical choices, where randomness plays a fundamental role. the artist, and Titania Hess, his granddaughter, to whom the Sainte-Geneviève library would like to once again express its warmest thanks. It is no longer just a question of thinking about what the engraving shows us, but also about the way in which it comes about. Even though the artist demonstrates a unique degree of mastery of the techniques and processes of engraving, the print is never synonymous with total, disembodied and without escape control. Their confidence allows us to see the artist's work from a point of view rarely adopted.

The proposed route highlights the deeply artisanal dimension of the work of the author of Taille sweet: a printer's tale.