Diaspora

Each journey, over land and sea, has been hand stitched

The book on display as part of the ‘Enfolded Journeys’ exhibition at The Leeds Library.

Diaspora – the dispersion or spread of people from their original homeland.

A small edition of eight books made for the ‘Enfolded Journeys’ touring exhibition organised by PAGES Contemporary Artists’ Books and Events

Through my work as a graphic designer for Asylum Welcome, a refugee charity in Oxford, I have been moved by the stories of the people they support; many of whom arrive in the UK after long, difficult journeys. This book documents some of these actual journeys, and highlights the range of countries that people flee from, hoping to make a new life here.

‘Diaspora’ mimics a fold-out books of postcards, with each page highlighting the home country of a refugee and the route they took to reach the UK as a place of sanctuary. Digitally illustrated maps are overlaid with scans of hand-stamped type, and feature a hand stitched journey of migration, representing the strong ties to homelands that endure. The stitched paths are left as dangling threads in the UK as an acknowledgement that many people feel untethered when they arrive here, particularly without support.

Digital illustration and hand stitching on 200gsm gesso paper; 8-page concertina fold; cloth-bound hard covers

Size: 152 x 104mm

Edition size: 8

With thanks to Asylum Welcome for their support, and to all of those who shared their journeys with me.

Five copies of the book are available now in my online shop

Preparing for BS9 Art Trail

There have been a lot of books in production over the past few weeks in preparation for the BS9 Art Trail this weekend (9 and 10 June). I'll be at the Stoke Bishop scout hut again (venue 11) - so come along and say hello if you're in Bristol

Set in Stone

My chosen litho plate which I scanned to print acetates to create photo-polymer stamps.

Embossed book cloth for the front cover - the shape will be filled with a metallic print of the star motif (shown in the next photo).

Gold foil heat transfer – laser printing black ink onto black paper and then running it through a laminator with the foil.

After a fruitless search for just the right green paper for a bellyband (to match the tobacco tin in which the book will sit) I decided to mix and roller my own colour. 

Belly bands printed with a photo-polymer stamp of the company name and a metallic heat transfer foil for the seal on the back.

The fiddly job of folding, cutting and sticking 150 rizla papers...

 … into a flag book structure.

Set in Stone

Deep in the heart of the M-shed stores in Bristol, over 70 lithographic stones have been stored, gathering layers of dust. These stones, discovered in the blitzed basement of the Mardons printing house, were once used to mass-produce labels of W.D and H.O Wills tobacco, whose products included Golden Virginia and Players Navy Cut.

‘Set in Stone’ is a collaborative project run by Charlotte Biszewski, who has worked with Stephanie Turnbull to transfer the images on the stones onto lithographic plates in order for them to be a starting point for various Bristol artists to create new work. It will culminate in an exhibition, appropriately, at the Tobacco Factory in August - more details to follow soon.

As soon as I heard about this project I was really keen to be involved. Following on from my MA studies, I’m really interested in the idea of taking printed ephemera from the past and preserving it through re-invention. When I picked up my litho plate back in May, I was thinking that this would be a good opportunity to create something non-book for a change, but as I mulled over the potential of the imagery I started thinking of traditional embossed bookcloth, patterned endpapers and creating something that could be contained within a tobacco tin. So that will be a book then.

Pictured here are some photos from the production process, which involved creating photo-polymer stamps, heat transfer foil blocking, embossed book cloth and Hedi Kyle’s flag book structure using Rizla papers. Truly tobacco-tastic!

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...