Monday 4 November 2019

Artist's Book: Battered


95mm x 215mm with 22 printed, folded pages.
Yellow fly-leaf and endpaper with maker's emboss.
Japanese account book style binding in red silk thread with PVC tablecloth covers.
Book packaged in white food bag printed with an original 2-colour lino print.
Each book comes with its own Mermaid Chip Fork and Miracle Fish.

Limited edition of 20, each copy is numbered and signed.
Made in Brighton in October 2009.


This book has a dual message; on one hand it’s a celebration of British chips but on the other it’s a lament to the declining cod stocks. The book is called Battered to reflect these two sides, both the cooking and the over-fishing. The Atlantic cod is a fish in crisis, stocks have suffered heavily from overfishing on both sides of the Atlantic. All stocks are classified as being overfished or at risk of being harvested unsustainably.

The sequence of pages through the book shows images of a packet of chips being eaten, next to an image of slowly disappearing cod. The reverse pages show photographs taken over a number of years in the U.K., Gibraltar and Spain of chip chop advertising boards or 'A' boards. The book is covered in a yellow check PVC tablecloth bound in the style of a Japanese account book - the pages are folded at the leading edge. The book is presented in a white chip shop bag that's been printed with a 2-colour lino of the title of the book. Each book holds within its pages a Mermaid Chip Fork and Miracle Fish.

Mermaid Chip Forks kindly provided by Ashwood Timber, Dartford, Kent, U.K.







Battered appeared in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2010
The Royal Academy invited me to enter a book for this show since they were looking to promote book arts during the Summer Exhibition. ( I was one of about a dozen British Book artists specially invited).
14 June—22 August 2010
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
As part of the Summer Exhibition the Royal Academy shop also stocked a number of titles from Damp Flat Books; Anxious Homes, Running A Secret Society No.20, Damp in Ditchwater, Mortal Coil and of course copies of Battered.

Battered was also exhibited in the 2nd Sheffield Artist's Book Prize Exhibition.
October 8th - October 31st, 2009.
Held to coincide with the Off the Shelf Festival which takes place annually in Sheffield.
32-40 Bank Street, Sheffield, S1 2DS