This is the first volume in the new Piquant Editions Visibilia Series of Visual Monographs. It features 45 black-and-white wood engravings and etchings by UK painter and engraver Peter S Smith.
Peter's work is introduced by Calvin Seerveld, who gives first a short general introduction to wood engraving as an artform before looking more particularly at British wood engravers. After this background, Seerveld evaluates the particular contribution of Peter S Smith in the context of his life experience and the key people who have shaped his artistic imagination. Seerveld concludes: "It would be a mistake to hurry through these pages. Better, take time. Give these wood engravings and their quiet voice time to speak and to be heard."

“Peter’s work has always arrested me: stopping an amble down a gallery wall, making me lean into a small but fierce engraved image, startling me with a wave of recognition of strength in a drawing. The outstanding quality of the images is that each one has been executed to the best of its potential: there is no ‘style’ running through them, it is more that the general seam is one of strength. The pages of this book turn very slowly.”
Edwina Ellis, UK Engraver and Printmaker

"We are indebted to Peter Smith for this fine collection of his work. I am impressed by the range of his subject matter and the quality of his engravings and etchings. There is creativity which so reflects the handiwork of our Creator. There is perception, which the ability to see with the heart as well as with the eye. This is where the artist has an advantage on the rest of us; they have a particular way of seeing which helps them to view the world differently. There is skill, for good art requires the ability to translate what one sees into a piece of work that is coherent and compelling. And above all there is a pursuit of excellence. There is a superficial approach to art in some Christian circles which thinks that art is only 'good' if it has obvious 'Christian' themes or serves a specifically 'evangelistic' purpose. It seems to me as I read the Bible that art which glorifies God is art that is well done, that it is in excellence that we show forth the handiwork of the maker."
Rev Dr Liam Goligher, Duke Street Church, Surrey, UK