In 1980 Peter Blum began to publish graphic art editions under the name Peter Blum Edition. Blum, who grew up in Holland and studied political science in Paris and at Georgetown University, Washington, had an interest in art from an early age.

In 1970 he took a summer job at Galerie Beyeler in Basel, where he found himself attracted to fine prints, books and printing, and ended up working there until 1976. From 1978 to 1980 he worked in Zurich at the Internationale Neue Kunsthalle, where he documented artists' installations. Through this job he met A. R. Penck, John Baldessari, and Jonathan Borofsky. In 1979 he visited the Galleria De Crescenzo in Rome, where he was introduced to the drawings of Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia, and Mimmo Paladino. He drove back to Switzerland the next day and was struck with the idea of publishing.

His first collaboration was with Cucchi in Rome. He continued to commission important artists with whom he wanted to collaborate, often choosing artists who had little or no experience with printmaking. Blum would obtain each artist's proposal, or sometimes offer his own ideas, and then select the printer's studio that would be most suitable to the artist and himself. The design and construction of the portfolio box was given the same importance as the prints themselves, sometimes with the artist's involvement.