Our families have a history of archiving and printing,” says Sumir Tagra, one half of the artist duo Thukral & Tagra. “Jiten’s father still runs a design studio in Jalandhar, and my family’s printing press in New Delhi, specialised in offset printing. So we both have a common understanding of paper and print. Jiten’s probably been letter-pressing since he was eight years old.” His counterpart Jiten Thukral adds, “There was a printing press opposite my house… just 10 steps away. You could hear it working through the day and night. That’s where my love for paper and old-style printing began… and there were no computers at the time, so I used to typeset by hand for my father.”

Growing up immersed in this skill, the Gurugram-based duo naturally gravitated towards building their own publication. “There are multiple proposals that go into creating an exhibition which no one ever gets to see…,” says Tagra, “or many sketches before a final painting reaches a collector’s home. We wonder how to reward ourselves for this creative process, and maintain these dairies and archives. This isn’t just for us, many artists constantly ask the question ‘what are the means of archiving’?”