JUEBAN OR SUICIDE TECHNIQUE: Chen Li works in the rare “suicide” woodblock printing technique that leaves no room for error. All colours are printed from a single woodblock whereby each step carves over the previous one until the woodblock is destroyed. This allows for only a single edition in which each print is unique.

The Yunnan Province where Chen Li lives and works is one of the best known areas for the use and development of this technique which translates from the Chinese term, jueban 绝版 as "reduction" or ‘waste-block printing".

The ” technique builds up the image through a process of repeated cutting and printing of the same block, printing with a different coloured ink after each cutting.  This process relies on printing one colour over another, and therefore, only the opaque oil-based inks are suitable. [fn] The rich, oil-based inks give the prints a unique texture, similar to an oil painting.

The woodblock is destroyed at the end of the process, so only a single limited edition can ever be made.

The artist starts by determining the amount of prints or impressions in that single edition – say, 20. He or she then cuts a section of the image to be printed in the first, either lightest or darkest, colour. After printing 20 impressions the artist cuts the next section of the image, covering the woodblock with a second colour over the first. This destroys the ability to re-print the first colour and locks the edition into the pre-determined number of prints. This intricate and complex process continues until the image is fully cut, all the colours are printed, and the woodblock is destroyed.  

[fn: Farrer, Anne, ed., Chinese Printmaking Today: Woodblock Printing in China 1980-2000 (London: British Library, 2003), p. 119.]