In wood engraving the drawing of the image to be reproduced is usually made on a block of hard wood such as box. The surface is worked with a burin (a basic tool with which the engraver cuts lines into, and lifts out, slivers from the printing surface). This is then inked with a sticky ink, stiff enough to prevent it from flowing into the hollows. The ink is then transferred to the paper by pressure, often in a printing press. The fine lines cut by the burin are beneath the surface carrying the ink, and the therefore print white.

'The Millennium Ark' represents the work of the still-thriving Society of Wood Engravers, a society established in 1920, and was produced to celebrate the Millennium. This was a unique project, gathering together twenty-six artists to collaborate on a single print. It was printed by one of the wood engravers participating in the project, Paul Kershaw, in two stages.