Today with Giclee printing technology, an artist is able to produce high quality abstract art prints on canvas or paper in unlimited editions. In traditional printmaking such as wood-cut, screen printing or lithography, a limited edition was a natural result of the time-consuming, hand-made process.
It's true that the initial investment in a large-format top-quality ink-jet printer is not something the average artist might be able to afford, but there are plenty of printmakers online or often, locally, who will do it for you at a reasonable charge. The important thing is to get a high-quality, high-resolution photo or scan of the original painting to work with.
There is no physical reason why the number of Giclee prints made from one of my abstract paintings has to be limited, except to make them more scarce. People have a sense that a scarce commodity is worth more than an unlimited one. A limited edition also distinguishes a fine art museum qualit print from one made in hundreds or thousands by lesser-quality offset printing.
A number of years ago I licensed six of my paintings to a publisher to offset print on paper in large multiples, and now I'm sorry I did so. This type of reproduction offers a really inexpensive option for those who can't afford to buy real art, but I'd hate for anyone to confuse them with my museum-quality Giclee prints.
An artist today needs to carefully think about her choices for reproduction and choose wisely, remembering that everything is visible on the internet and that nothing goes away in this online world of ours.
Here's one of the paintings I signed away the exclusive rights to for inexpenseive offset reproduction: