Global Blake: In Conversation with Camille Adnot - Mirror Writing and Mirror Designing in William Blake’s Illuminated Books
In 1789, Blake developed the relief etching technique which he described as “a method of Printing which combines the Painter and the Poet,” allowing him to simultaneously write and design on copper plates for his illuminated books. This process required Blake to write and design in reverse, leading him to develop his command of retrography. Consequently, what appears “forwards” on the printed page is the product of a “backwards” preparatory process.
There are instances in which Blake intentionally prints text backwards, drawing attention to the transformations of the printed word, as in plates of Milton a Poem (c. 1804-1811) and Jerusalem (c. 1804-1820). This paper analyses the workings of these reversed words on the printed page, examining the dynamics of reading text backwards, and the function that these words serve within the illuminated book. This investigation into mirror writing and its implications extends to Blake’s practice of mirror designing, which, though less obviously subversive and challenging for the reader, still operates a reversal of important proportions. Recurrent iconographic motifs that change orientation depending on whether they are sketched or etched will be approached through W. J. T. Mitchell’s notion of “multistable” images (Picture Theory, 1995), leading to a broader discussion on images that suggest a double direction, and pairs of images that mirror each other. Through these analyses, I explore some of the dynamics behind Blake’s fearful symmetries.