The Publisher’s Gambit: The Mysterious Business of Print Publishing

The mysterious business of print publishing has changed little since Hieronymus Cock and Volcxken Diericx founded the print publishing house, Aux Quatre Vents (The Four Winds) in Antwerp in 1548. They understood that every print requires the skills and expertise of an artist, a printer, and a publisher to make the leap from imagination to a physical reality. Recognizing that these roles did not need to be performed by the same person, they divided up the labor, pairing artists with printmakers and selling the prints themselves. This method of divided labor has remained to this day a common and time-tested business model.

Join Nadine Orenstein and Phil Sanders for a lively discussion on the origins of modern print publishing in the 16th century, how it works today, and why print publishers are still willing to bet it all on the art.

Nadine Orenstein, the Drue Heinz Curator in Charge of the Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

Phil Sanders, Master Printer, Author, and Publisher

This program was presented at the IFPDA Print Fair 2023 on-site at the Javits Convention Center.