Here is an invitation to turn the pages of our books, copies of which are behind glass in The British Library Treasures Room. There will be single prints from Printess and the 'p', more books and new work in progress. 

Everything Changes II

I began from the outside, with this book (to be shown at the UK Fine Press Book Fair in Oxford, 9 & 10 December 2023) working with the materiality of print to express what I am learning about change.

Invited to make a book for 2020 about Magellan’s quest to circumnavigate the Earth, “Everything Changes” by Cicely Herbert was perfect and also worked for the times we were living through. Her playing with mirror images had inspired this small book in 1998. Magellan exchanged a mirror for enough fish for ten men when they landed in Rio de Janeiro. I began to see translations/transactions as altered mirrors.

Contact with, and news about the ‘wild’, led me to scrape away rainforest from an unprinted etching plate- the utopian last plate for “The Monkeys’ Dream” (Rocket Press 1991). Part of this etching will be one of the extra pages I slide into the spine of this 2023 version of “Everything Changes”. Ideas start here in the letterpress room and also at book fairs (Ludlow). 

 

Everything Changes

The next 'Storm of Stars' prints will probably be more like these monoprints...

Collagraphs from the experimental stage of prints for “A Storm of Stars” were crying out to be reworked and they made the centre pages of “Recovered Vol. 3” unique.

Artist/tutors Peter Freeth, Anita Ford and Julia Wilson at the amazing much-loved Camden Institute, encouraged experimentation including my first soft-ground etched collage. Printmaking became even more experimentally tactile during a residency (at Simpson School in Milton Keynes) working directly with scrap, and because it had to be safe for young participants, water-based inks.

This double page is from “Printess & the p”, still on show at the British Library. In the right-hand corner of this page is a section of squashed sacking - my first ever collagraph. The ‘lamp’ above is printed from foil, the silk dress on the linen-press is darkened with printed carborundum-coated lace and I drew into polyvinyl adhesive, and used it to coat card, embroidery wool, sheepskin and dehydrated peas and carrots. I made “gravy” from epoxy resin and for the bed; cut various vinyl wallpapers. Now, aware that everything changes, I am trying to carefully use only what is still in my studio.

Here is 'Recovered' Vol 3: the final book in the series of book works (each in an edition of 10) where dreams of the future have been expressed through hats and print. 

It is now ready for the much-anticipated Oxford Fine Press Book Fair. The prospect is so exciting - to see again beautiful books, prints and ephemera from some of the world's finest presses - over 100 stands. The fair takes place at the Examination Schools, 75 - 81 High Street, Oxford. 

£5 fee covers both days, a catalogue and lectures on Sunday. 

Saturday 5th March 11am - 5pm and Sunday 6th March 10am - 5pm. I hope to see you there! 

 For a small 'Open Studio' event this week - outside and inside my print room at Essex Road. 

Here are images of some colour collagraphs from the book 'Recovered Vol. 2' to be published in November 2021.

Overview

 

Recovered Vol. 2. is the latest of three invented book forms. It was printed this Summer and will now be published in November 2021 (for the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair). Each form, planned as three small volumes was inspired by the discovery of a newspaper in the cellar of the cafe on this first page. The most recent of these, 'A Storm of Stars', bought by the Bodleian Library during lockdown can be found at https://twitter.com/RareBooksOfBod

'Overview' is an exhibition made from a parachute shared into 40x60 cm pieces. The banner I made refers to events in Thame in 1913 as described by Jane Robinson in her book 'Hearts and Minds'. An exhibition of maps at the Bodleian Library inspired work in progress in this new medium which grew into a drawn and printed collage with stitches. Now and for probably a good while yet, this free exhibition hangs from the balcony at (Covid precautious) Thame Library in North Street.