Making covers while the sun shines

It can only mean one thing - another season of Artists' Book Fairs in the offing.

I am trying to become a bit more disciplined about making all of the copies in an edition in one go, so that they are ready in advance for fairs and exhibitions and I don't have that mad scramble to make something to order.  It should also help with the development of my work as having to keep going back and make more of an earlier piece can disrupt my train of thought and new ideas, as well as the fact that it is always difficult to remember exactly the process and measurements used when you have had a gap since making the last one.  Plus of course it will mean there is more space on my table for exciting new things!

(I say all of this with the confession that in reality I am trying to make the remaining copies of an edition of 8, the first 3 of which were completed a few weeks ago.  So it is something of a resolution rather than actual practice at the moment, but definitely something to strive for).

Yes yes yes!

Ah, that's better.  First day of term and straight back on the press.  Started things off with a small phrase for a friend, but as these things do that snowballed into a stack of prints, which in turn are destined for a book or two.

The Collecting bug

Colleagues at my current workplace have caught on to my collecting habit and are now finding me all sorts of 'treasure'.  This week there was a bumper haul...

Old catalogue / issue cards

Empty slide cases

The Phone book - on microfiche!

Some great stuff, the only question is where I put it all while I wait for inspiration to strike.

Going global

Somewhat to my bemusement I have some books in different international exhibitions, all at the same time.

I have 3 books in the artists' book exhibition Correspondence which is touring Poland for 2 years.  The exhibition has just reached Lodz and the organisers have sent us this:

The Jozef Pilsudski Regional and Municipal Public Library in Lodz + Polish Book Art Museum
invite you to the 9th International Book Art Festival CORRESPONDENCE, presenting works

of 84 artists from Europe, USA and Asia.

Correspondence

Earlier in the year I was asked to make a book for a French Exchange project involving student book artists from the University of the West of England, Bristol and our counterparts at the Universite Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne.  Pictures of the finished book still to come, but the exhibition poster and invitation are shown below.

Regards Croises France / Royaume-Uni

I recently received a catalogue for an exhibition including one of my books that has recently been on show in Armenia.  It was part of the celebrations to mark Yerevan - UNESCO's City of the Book 2012 and the 500th anniversary of the first printed book in Armenian.  The exhibition has now returned to the UK and will soon be on show at the University of Northampton, where the books will be kept in the archive. Here is the poster:

Love British Books 2012

Surfacing

There is quite a lot going on at the moment so information may be in a bit of a jumbled order, but here's a thing happening soon where I'll be showing a couple of small prints.  Come along if you are in the area...

Sneak preview

A few snaps of some of the work currently under production...

Autumn dates

A summer of planning and making and reflecting is leading up to an Autumn programme of artists' book fairs.  Once again I will collaborating on these with Pet Galerie Press.


On Saturday 15th September we will be at the inaugural Plymouth Artist's Book Fair, being held as a part of Plymouth International Book Festival at Plymouth University.

October sees us in Manchester, where Hot Bed Press have expanded the event to cover Fri 12th and Sat 13th, and including a morning of artist-led presentations and discussions.  We are presenting work at this event under the umbrella of LEN, so all my work will have some element of letterpress.

And in November we will once again be attending the Small Publishers Fair at Conway Hall in London with Impact Press.