Thermo-fax printing process utilized by Lise Melhorn-Boe in creating fabric bookworks
Channel: Queen's University Library
Date: 05/05/2022

Bookworks printed in part by using a thermo-fax machine are featured in the exhibition, Textus-Texts-Textiles: fabric bookworks by Lise Melhorn-Boe, at W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections, Queen’s University Library, 6 May – 9 September 2022. 

Melhorn-Boe prints her fabric bookworks using a 3M Thermo-Fax Machine. Invented in the 1950s and discontinued in the 1990s, the Thermo-Fax uses thermographic printing to transfer text to the material. The heat reacts with the carbon in the ink to create an embedded typeset into the acetate from which ink is applied and transferred to the material. While it's a mostly outdated technology, the Thermo-Fax is used by printers, book artists, and tattoo artists. This video shows the process of how Melhorn-Boe transforms text on a sheet of paper into a template on acetate that can be used to print ink on fabric.  

Video by Brendan Edwards; edited by Ella Heiss, 2022.