Kunstprenteverket

Traditional printmaking. Living heritage.

A living printmaking centre

Kunstprenteverket is the printmaking centre at Landeskogen — a place where traditional printing techniques, historic equipment, and contemporary artistic practice meet.

Here, presses, type collections, and specialist tools remain in active use. Lithography, intaglio, relief printing, letterpress, hot metal typesetting, and bookbinding are kept alive through practical knowledge, craftsmanship, and continued artistic exploration.

Rather than preserving printing traditions as something belonging only to the past, Kunstprenteverket keeps them active, allowing old techniques to create new expressions.

The Workshop

A place where printing comes to life

Kunstprenteverket is a working print studio where historic presses and traditional tools remain part of everyday practice.

The workshop brings together equipment from different periods of printing history, from hand-operated presses and type collections to specialised tools used in graphic production.

Some machines are more than a century old, yet they continue to serve their original purpose: creating printed works.

Artists, students, researchers, and visitors can experience the connection between materials, machines, and craftsmanship that defines traditional printing.

Traditional printing techniques

From image to text

Traditional printing encompasses a wide range of processes, each with its own materials, tools, and knowledge.

At Kunstprenteverket, these include:

Lithography
Drawing and printing from stone, a technique that transformed artistic reproduction in the nineteenth century.

Intaglio printing
Creating images from engraved or etched plates, including techniques such as copperplate printing.

Relief printing
Printing from raised surfaces, including woodcut and linocut.

Letterpress and hot metal typesetting
The craft of setting and printing text using metal or wood type, preserving the techniques that shaped books, newspapers, and visual communication for generations.

Bookbinding
Connecting printed pages into finished objects through traditional craft.

Preserving working heritage

Keeping knowledge alive

Kunstprenteverket is a working print studio where historic presses and traditional tools remain part of everyday practice.

The workshop brings together equipment from different periods of printing history, from hand-operated presses and type collections to specialised tools used in graphic production.

Some machines are more than a century old, yet they continue to serve their original purpose: creating printed works.

Artists, students, researchers, and visitors can experience the connection between materials, machines, and craftsmanship that defines traditional printing.

Printing as cultural heritage

From communication to artistic expression

For centuries, printing has shaped how people communicate and share ideas. Books, newspapers, posters, maps, and works of art were created through processes that combined technology, craftsmanship, and creativity.

Although digital tools have transformed the way information is produced, traditional printing continues to offer unique artistic and material possibilities.

The physical qualities of ink, paper, type, and printed surfaces remain an important source of inspiration for contemporary artists.

Part of Landeskogen

Kunstprenteverket is one part of the wider transformation of Landeskogen into a centre for art, culture, and heritage.

Within the historic buildings of the former Landeskogen Sanatorium, the workshop exists alongside exhibitions, the museum, artist residencies, and cultural events. Together, these elements create a place where historical knowledge, artistic practice, and new ideas meet.

Kunstprenteverket connects the preservation of traditional printing with the wider story of Landeskogen — a place where the past continues to inspire new creative activity.