Counter Plymouth Artist Book Fair

The third annual Counter Plymouth Artist Book Fair was held in the Davy Building at Plymouth University at the end of October.

It was another great day, with more contributors and a good selection of presentations/talks by contributing artists.

As always, it was a great opportunity to meet and talk to fellow book makers and be inspired by their creativity. I sold a few books and came away buzzing with ideas!

Looking forward to next years event! 

http://www.counterplymouth.com

Counter Plymouth 2016

Extraction/Response

Extraction/Response is a hand made book of poems, created by extracting text from the Plymouth Herald newspaper. The poems are my personal response to living in Plymouth and were devised back in 2012.

The response is about the mixed relationship that I've had with Plymouth - a city I wasn't born in, but have lived in for over 35 years. It was never my intention to stay beyond the first four years, but life had other ideas!

When I originally had the idea to make the book, I produced only one large format book, but recently felt that it was time to refresh the design and, more importantly, to make multiples.

The design for the cover came from material made during an afternoon of experimental painting/mark making. I had archived the various pieces of work, which can always be a useful place to revisit when looking for book covers or ideas!

Printing using a home inkjet printer can have its drawbacks; the main one being the restriction on paper weight that the printer will tolerate. I find this is usually around 170 - 200gsm. Using a heavier weight can result in the paper jamming or sticking as it is pulled through the printer. The sticking is a particular problem if the images need to fit evenly across the page. For this project it wasn't a problem because I placed one image in the centre of the page and cut it out afterwards, and therefore was able to use 220g cartridge paper.

The Japanese stab binding worked well on this book and enables the viewer to flick the pages easily. It's a very simple method of binding and various types of thread can be used, making a secure and neat finish.

Front Cover: 'Extraction/Response' 2016

210 x 99mm Ink on 220g smooth cartridge paper

Inside: 'Extraction/Response' 2016

210 x 99 mm Ink on newsprint paper

  

Extraction/Response

Extraction/Response is a hand made book of poems, created by extracting text from the Plymouth Herald newspaper. The poems are my personal response to living in Plymouth and were devised back in 2012.

The response is about the mixed relationship that I've had with Plymouth - a city I wasn't born in, but have lived in for over 35 years. It was never my intention to stay beyond the first four years, but life had other ideas!

When I originally had the idea to make the book, I produced only one large format book, but recently felt that it was time to refresh the design and, more importantly, to make multiples.

The design for the cover came from material made during an afternoon of experimental painting/mark making. I had archived the various pieces of work, which can always be a useful place to revisit when looking for book covers or ideas!

Printing using a home inkjet printer can have its drawbacks; the main one being the restriction on paper weight that the printer will tolerate. I find this is usually around 170 - 200gsm. Using a heavier weight can result in the paper jamming or sticking as it is pulled through the printer. The sticking is a particular problem if the images need to fit evenly across the page. For this project it wasn't a problem because I placed one image in the centre of the page and cut it out afterwards, and therefore was able to use 220g cartridge paper.

The Japanese stab binding worked well on this book and enables the viewer to flick the pages easily. It's a very simple method of binding and various types of thread can be used, making a secure and neat finish.

Front Cover: 'Extraction/Response' 2016

210 x 99mm Ink on 220g smooth cartridge paper

Inside: 'Extraction/Response' 2016

210 x 99 mm Ink on newsprint paper

  

Tsunami

A book using extracted text from a newspaper article about the Japanese tsunami of 2011.

The article is about a man, Yasuo, who is still searching for his missing wife, Yuko. He recalls their last morning together, travelling to work and making plans for the evening, then the painful last text messages they shared. 

Yasuo survived, but Yuko was never found.

A couple of years later, while watching the Japanese coastguard, Yasuo decided to learn to dive, to search for Yuko and finally bring her home. His love is demonstrated so hugely by his repeated and probably futile searching.

The extracted text doesn't differ in theme from the article, but separates out the romantic and poetic from facts and journalism.

I decided to add some colour images, which I made using pastels, charcoal and graphite worked over inkjet printed text. I took photos of the images and was a little concerned when the colours changed from the original; the black/grey charcoal turning to green. However, when I scanned the images, they thankfully remained true to colour. I was then able to upload them to the final document. I particularly like the grainy texture and the depth of the text in the images.

'Tsunami' 2016

148 x 148mm

Inject printed on 135gsm Colorplan cool blue and 100gsm white drawing paper

Inside: 'Tsunami' 2016

Images: Pastel, charcoal and graphite on inkjet print

Six Questions

'Six Questions: An interview with....' is a series of micro books.
In each book six questions are put to and answered by an object.

This series of books has been met with amusement by viewers, but once they have read the interviews they are pleasantly surprised! I was fortunate to attend a creative writing class, where students were asked to have a conversation with an object.....my book ideas started to form straight away!

It's been a really enjoyable task, and a break from extracting text for book works.

'Six Questions' 2016

Front cover: 74 x 105mm inkjet printed on 90g paper in white

Inside page: Set in 10pt Gill Sans

Dot Dash

'Dot Dash' 2016

A ten page A6 booklet based on the theme 'Dot Dash'.
To be included in an online exhibition at www.weloveyourbooks.com 

www.flickr.com/photos/rejectamenta/albums/72157674702248456


Translated from lines in poems about the sea, the morse code in this book offers a stark, simple mark on the page, suggestive of the harshness of a maritime distress call. It is in contrast to a romantic notion of life at sea, portrayed in the selected poems (see below).

Using a sewing machine to stitch lines across tracing paper gave an interesting dot dash effect. The hand printed title fitted between the lines completely by accident! I love it when that happens!

'Dot Dash' 2016

A6

Hand printed on 270gsm Colorplan white frost and machine

stitched on tracing paper.

Inside:
Inkjet printed on 135gsm Colorplan white frost.

Selected lines from poems:

But the tender grace of a day that is dead will never come back to me.

Till my soul is full of longing

For the secret of the sea.

Themselves the verge of seas to be.

So the stars wheeled round, and the darkness past.

And some are drowned in deep water.

Feast them upon the wideness of the sea.

Home is the sailor, home from the sea.

For the ship's my wife, and the breath of life.

The world of water is our home.

On went she, and due north her journey took.