I'm please to announce Be Nice When It's Finished - Berlin has just been purchased by the National Art Library in the V & A Museum, London. The book joins their prestigious bookarts collection.
Leporello constructed from a single A3 sheet folded to make 16 pages.
80mm X 100mm with separate grey card folding cover with silver lining and silver 'pipe' on front.
Red and white ribbon is bound into the book to resemble builder's hazard tape, and keep the book closed. Brighton 2014. Edition of 20 - all numbered and signed plus embossed with Damp Flat Books name.
Micro Artist's Book celebrating the major building works that have become a regular feature of Berlin. After visiting Berlin in 2006 I was amazed at the scale of building works and in a return visit in 2013 it was still just as frenzied. A walk round the city made me feel as if I was in a real-life 'Sim City' that was constantly being knocked down and rebuilt around me, I took lots of photos of the pink pipes, cranes, hazard tape and false facades. Berlin is a dynamic place to be and there's a strange feeling that if you turn your back the building behind you might not be there when you turn around again. It's 25 years since the Wall has come down but the city itself has still not worked out what it's wants to be and the transformations are constant. The title of the book is from a quip my uncle Harry used to make when we came across building works in London (or any city) - "London, be nice when it's finished". I love the idea that one day Berlin will be finished, - maybe I'll visit in another seven years and have a look.
