Women in Art

A fan book featuring negative quotes about women artists and their work.

This book came about after digging through some old sketchbooks and finding the list of quotes, which were part of another, unresolved project.

It fired up my inner feminist and I do feel that more ideas could come from this book.

'Women in Art' 2015

100mm x 40mm

Inkjet printed on 160gsm white card

A sample of text from the book:

'her family were against her becoming a painter'

'reserved only for her male colleagues'

Journeys #2

The second of a series of books about journeys.

A handwritten list of company names seen on lorries during a coach journey between Exeter and London.

I mainly produced this book to be suitable as a series of multiples, which are popular at book fairs. However, on reflection, I feel that  a much longer list or series of lists, bound together into a larger book, would have greater appeal to me, if not to visitors to book fairs. Having said that, people did buy a few!

I particularly like the methodical, even meditative process of hand writing lists of words/objects, or in this case company names. Aside from the process, the visual quality of handwritten text in capitals appeals to me, and, I think works very well.

Journeys #2 2015

148 x 105mm

Hand written on newsprint.

Inkjet printed on 160gsm card in bright blue.

Journeys #1

A handwritten list of number plates from cars overtaken on a journey between Plymouth and Cardiff.

Journeys #1 2015

148 x 105mm

Cover: 120g card in canary yellow

Inside: Handwritten in black ink on squared paper.

In this Grey Wind

'In this Grey Wind' is a handmade book using extracted text from 'Birds of the Grey Wind' by Edward A. Armstrong.

This has been one of my favourite outcomes of extracting text! 

I didn't begin with a theme, but just simply started by picking out key words and phrases. The bird watching book by Armstrong was written with such passion and absorbing description, that I found myself drawn to the bird's courtships and habitats, resulting in poetry that suggests love, relationship and loss.

It was the first extraction process from a book (the others being from newspapers) and it took quite a long time to compile, but one that I will definitely repeat!   

'In this Grey Wind', 2015

130 x 210mm

Inkjet printed on 120gsm White goatskin paper. 

Cover: Judd Street paper 'Diana Wilbraham, blue'

Sample from page one:

The

birds they came to meet me

in a tangle of jessamine and

honeysuckle

blackbirds

singing

exultant

melodies

of

ardour

and

love

5th Sheffield International Artist Book Prize & Exhibition

'One hundred and Eighty Seven Words for Home' has been accepted into the 5th International Artist Book Prize and Exhibition at Bank Street Arts, Sheffield.

'One Hundred and Eighty Seven Words for Home' 2015

14.3 x 18.7cm

Inkjet printed on 120gsm goatskin parchment, 

135gsm Colorplan china white and 270gsm Colorplan mandarin

'Inventory' at BABE2015

'Inventory' 2011

A handmade book compiling a list of everything in my home.

Great to see it displayed at BABE2015 courtesy of Bank Street Arts, Sheffield!

This is a good example of the need to make more than one copy of any handmade book! Having won the 3rd Sheffield International Artist Book Prize and Exhibition, Bank Street Arts became the new owners, leaving me with no copy! It is my intention to re-compile the list, possibly hand written and using a different format....but that's for another day!

One Hundred & Eighty Seven Words for Home

A coptic bound handmade book exploring the connection between language and memory.

It is a list compiled from a short writing exercise in which I wrote down objects, sounds and scents that I could remember from the house I grew up in. I tried not to focus too consciously, instead, simply allowing the list to reveal itself as I mentally strolled through the house.

The objects, sounds and scents listed can, for me, be so clearly linked to childhood memory, that they almost form another language; one of specific association to home.

The book is coptic bound - a type of binding new to me, and one that I improve at with each new book!

One Hundred & Eighty Seven Words for Home,' 2015

14.3 x 18.7cm

Inkjet printed on 120gsm goatskin parchment, 

135gsm Colorplan china white and 270gsm Colorplan mandarin