THE Society of Wood Engravers’ 73rd Annual Exhibition opens at Hereford Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday, arriving from its first display at London’s Bankside Gallery.

The society exists to promote wood engraving, and is the principal organisation for those interested in the subject.

It is essentially an artists’ exhibiting society, with about 70 members who are practising artists who have been elected or invited to membership on merit.

The society was founded in 1920 by a group of artists that included Philip Hagreen, Robert Gibbings, Lucien Pissaro, Gwen Raverat and Eric Gill, who held an annual exhibition that attracted work from other notable artists such as David Jones, John and Paul Nash, Paul Gauguin and Clare Leighton.

Following a decade in which there were no exhibitions, SWE was revived in the early 1980s and has built up an international reputation for excellence.

The exhibition, stringently selected from an open submission, visits about eight venues each year, showing the best of current work from Britain and other countries.

The Society of Wood Engravers’ 73th Annual Exhibition runs at Hereford Museum and Art Gallery until Wednesday, April 6.

The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, Saturday, 10am to 4pm. For further information call 01432 260692.