Lots of lovely books

Carol Wood

Cathey Webb

Olga Fear

Katherine Stevens

A real pleasure to attend an exhibition of student’s work from the Hand Printed Artists’ Books course at Spike Print Studio. Having taught some sessions on lino printing on this course back in the Spring, it was a great to see those concertina books finished, but also the dizzying array of other handmade books on display. So many different formats and styles of working - and all completed since January. Really impressive stuff. The books will be on display in the Tom Trusky exhibition cases at UWE (Bower Ashton campus library) from 7 December to 31 January.

Unimagined Treasures

A rather belated post on the wonderful Mark Hearld exhibition ‘Unimagined Treasures’ at York Art Gallery. I only had half an hour before the gallery closed to spend at the exhibition, but could easily have lost the best part of an afternoon. Mark Hearld has created a Lumber Room – “a room of miscellaneous stored objects and artefacts” curated and created following two years of visiting the stores of the Yorkshire Museum, York Castle Museum and York Art Gallery. Many of the objects and artworks in the exhibition have never been on display before. The eclectic mix reminded me of the folk art exhibition by Barbara Jones ‘Black Eyes and Lemonade’ with shades of the bizarre collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. In addition to the curation of this collection, he also commissioned pieces (including the stunning seahorse sign above by The Brilliant Sign Company) and created his own new work: “Works made by me in paper, pot and paint respond to the collection and celebrate its richness and delight to be had in looking on it.” A real visual treat.

Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize exhibition

Left to right:
• Leci Bohn – Fole XYZ
• Jack Oudyn & Helen Malone – Paper, Scissors, Uluru
• Mehr Javed – Object-Book I

• Islam Aly – Orientation Cube

• Kate Castelli – Razzle Dazzle

• Dizzy Pragnell – Of Cabbages and Kings

• Cathey Webb – On the Radio

A trip up north was a good excuse to visit Bank Street Arts in Sheffield to see this year's International Artist's Book Prize exhibition. There was a selection process this year, so it was considerably smaller than the last exhibition in 2013, but it was still a very eclectic and interesting mix. As my selected photos show, I have a definite preference for folded books. Really excited to see Cathey Webb's book 'On the Radio' - the linocut book she made for the project I set when teaching on the Book Arts course at Spike Print back in April. Very impressed with how she finished it off and brilliant to see it selected. Ironically, my book in the exhibition ('A Short History of Hair') was made as a sample book for that project, and we're even alongside each other in the catalogue as two W surnames. The exhibition runs until the end of October...

RWA Annual Open Exhibition 2015

A very inspiring visit to the Autumn Exhibition at the RWA… a really strong year, and great to see a lot more printmaking selected. Especially impressed by the inclusion of a delicate potato print by the very talented Sally Muir… really worth a visit.

Some of my fellow exhibitors…

woodcuts and bronze/resin castings by Lin Biesheuvel

drypoints by Alison Sloggett

enamel bowls by Karen Murrell

etchings by Barbara Bluett

‘The Emerald City’ screenprint by Rebecca Weeks

The ‘Second Nature’ exhibition at The Island in Bristol by The Out of Print Collective. 

Ready to roll

Phew, exhibition all set up at The Island. I’ve used various acrylic plate stands and jewellery display plinths to display my books - it definitely seems to help to give them some height without cluttering things up too much.  

Hope to see you at the exhibition - opens tomorrow (4 September) and runs until 5pm on 9 September.

Second Nature

Just making final preparations for taking part in a group exhibition opening next friday. Four new books will be on show, as well as some more established favourites made earlier in the year.