How  it  works

​The 20:20 print exchange, run by Hot Bed Press, started in 2009 with 10 artists from Hot Bed Press in Salford exchanging prints with another 10 from Red Hot Press in Southampton.  It has since outgrown these humble beginnings and is now enormous.  Since then 60,000 prints have been exchanged. Each artist receives a unique box of randomly selected prints from across the UK, Ireland, and this year studios in Hong Kong and Canada.

 The idea is very straightforward.  The exchange takes place between studios (rather than individuals) and each studio can recruit 10, 20, 30 or more artists to take place (in tens) - although for some of the extremely small workshops just five printmakers take part.  Each artist produces an edition of 25 prints, measuring 20x20cm – that includes 20 prints for the exchange between artists and 4 for boxes that go to studios.  The final print goes to Hot Bed Press, so that the entire collection can tour internationally during the year before the next exchange takes place.

Artists involved each receive a box containing one of their own prints and 19 others randomly selected from all the other artists taking part.  Each studio will be twinned with another and receive a box containing prints from their own printmakers and prints from their twinned studio (the twinned studio will receive a box containing exactly the same prints).  Each studio also receives a random selection of prints taken from the entire exchange.

Traditional and digital printmaking methods are allowed, but no photographs or giclée prints, please. 

2014, L to R:  Sorters making their way round the vast number of prints, tables covered with prints stretching into the distance, and some teetering towers of boxes, full of prints and  ready to pack up.   

L to R: 2009 Oliver Flude, Hot Bed Press (Salford), 2010 Cynthia Neill, Belfast Print Workshop, 2017, Lisa Clare, Hot Bed Press (Salford), 2012 Melanie Gairns, Ochre Print Studio (Guildford), 2013 Bev Frayne, Neo Artists (Bolton), 2014 Sumi Perera, London Print Studio