Jemma Gunning is a Bristol based printmaker who specialises in etching. In her work she celebrates the beauty she finds in abandoned buildings (of which there are quite a few in the locality!). Etching is the perfect medium for Gunning’s visual elegies – the process requires an enforced ‘decay’: she uses acid to bite into her copper etching plates to form the lines of her image; a process that resonates with the natural decay of the structures Jemma Gunning finds her inspiration in. She searches for the lost narratives, imagines the forgotten former inhabitants, and creates highly detailed images of these abandoned interiors and exteriors. Her works ask us to slow down and properly consider subjects that too many of us would normally walk straight past and ignore. I wanted to find out more about Jemma Gunning’s impressive prints.

New Gaol Development
Jemma Gunning
Etching, 2016

McArthur Warehouse on the lithography stone (work in progress)
Jemma Gunning
2016

Applying Sugar Lift to a Copper Etching Plate

Smoking the plate (photo taken at Spike Print Studio, Bristol)

Jemma Gunning wiping an etching plate – the ink that sits in the grooves of the etched lines remain and are printed while the rest is wiped away

Artist Book in progress by Jemma Gunning

Mc Arthur Warehouse (work in progress)
Jemma Gunning
Stone lithograph combined with hardground etching, 2017

Inside Jemma Gunning’s studio: plates ready for etching with proofs hanging on the wall

Jemma Gunning revealing her print once the plate has gone through the press

Mc Arthur Warehouse (work in progress)
Jemma Gunning
Stone lithograph combined with hardground etching, 2017

Untitled
Jemma Gunning
Etching, 2017

Wapping Wharf
Jemma Gunning
Etching, 2016
The importance of decay in Jemma’s art style and process is
so interesting in its relation to the buildings that inspire her.
Similarly, the choice of materials creates a brilliant sense of
authenticity and tactile representation.