Birmingham Zine Festival - 10th-12th September

Held over the 10th-12th September, the first Birmingham Zine Festival was a great success, bringing together a host of self-publishing, handmade zines and comics. To accompany the exhibition there was also an exhibition of artwork and a postcard project. I participated in the Mail-Art Postcard Project and Exhibition, which saw over 200 invited entries from the UK, USA, Brazil, Finland, France, Germany and Spain. 

This was my postcard. 

More pictures and interviews can be viewed here on the Birmingham Zine Festival website:

http://www.birminghamzinefestival.com/

Future Fantasteek! No.8 Deepwater Horizon Issue

Future Fantasteek! No.9 Deepwater Horizon Issue is now available in an edition of 50.
To view the zine follow this link:
http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/zines/future9/index.htm

The first copies hot-off-the-press are on their way to various libraries and collections, but later issues are for sale from me, or in the Bookarts Bookshop, 17 Pitfield Street, London.
http://www.bookartbookshop.com/

What’s happened recently then?.... The Damp Research team have studiously tackled the issues that we all think about - such as do you waste more time on Facebook or Twitter, and what’s the point of it all when your closest friends are only ‘virtual’ and can’t even buy you a beer and crisps?

British Library to archive this Blog

The British Library invited this Damp Flat Blog to participate in their web archiving programme. They select and archive sites to represent aspects of UK documentary heritage and as a result, they will remain available to researchers in the future. The British Library works closely with leading UK institutions to collect and permanently preserve the UK web, and their archive can be seen at www.webarchive.org.uk.

Surely Not! Goes to Wales.

Surely Not! has just been purchased by Howard Gardens Library, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, South Wales as part of their Artists' Books Collection.

To see Surely Not! follow the link here...

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition SHOP

This year, the Summer Exhibition features artists' books for the first time. There are 19 books on display and you can 'look inside' 10 of these in the image galleries on the RA website.

The Summer Exhibition Shop also wanted to stock some artist's books so they contacted me amongst others and selected some further titles that could be made available in the Exhibition Shop. For the duration of the Summer Exhibition, they will be stocking copies of; Battered, Anxious Homes, Running a Secret Society No.20, Damp in Ditchwater and the last two copies Mortal Coil.

Here's some images of the great shop display, this year.

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 14 June-22 August 2010

A little while ago I received a personal invite from the Royal Academy to submit an Artist's Book for their Summer Exhibition 2010. The RA had said that they were looking to raise the profile of artists' books within the summer exhibition and had contacted a select number of established bookmakers working in the UK and offered each of them a free entry for one book.

I submitted Battered, and it was duly accepted for exhibition. I will also be making available a select number of Damp Flat Books for the Summer Exhibition Shop. Titles available will be; Anxious Homes, Running a Secret Society, Damp in Ditchwater, Mortal Coil and of course, Battered. For more on Artist's Books at the Royal Academy this year.

The Show Dates:

Buyer's Day - 10th June

Private Views - 11th June - 13th June
Exhibition open to the public - 14 June-22 August 2010
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD

How Battered is displayed within the exhibition, within the print room No.346

The yellow-covered book appears in the show, red and yellow covers are available in the shop.This year at the show there are a number of Artist's Books in glass cases in the centre of the print room. Some of the books are also available in the Exhibition Shop, I'm selling a number of titles there this year.

Postal Art Project - Exhibition Opening Times

The Postal Art Project exhibition of work is running from this Friday 30th April until Thursday 6th May and due to be taken down Friday morning.

F Block Gallery, Faculty of Creative Arts
Bower Ashton Campus, University of The West of England
Kennel Lodge Road, Bower Ashton, Bristol, UK, BS3 2JT

For opening times please call this number +44 (0) 117 32 84716 or Helen Allsebrook (the curator) on +44 (0) 7902939830
More images will be posted on blog as they become available.

Fetch-A-Sketch, 24 April 2010

Fetch-A-Sketch event organized by graduating University of Portsmouth Illustration students.  

Little Johnny Russells, Albert Road, Portsmouth, Saturday, 24 April 2010
Roberta Collins was event manager and got many illustrators to donate a sketchbook page for sale at this event including; Contributions from David Lupton, Sara Fanelli, Sam Chivers, Jill Poole, David Booth and lots more. The event was a great success and raised money for the students, towards the New Designers Exhibition in London.

I contributed two sketchbook pages to the event, this was one of them.

My Favourite Souvenir now in the Yale Collection

My Favourite Souvenir has just been purchased for the Artists' Books Collection at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, USA.

This is good because they've let me know that they also hold copies of:

• Evil eyes 
• Running a secret society no.20 
• Confidence 
• Anxious homes

Battered Now available in RED

I've just been making the second-half of my edition of Battered, but this half has a red cover, for folk who like variety. Battered (with the yellow cover) has also been submitted to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. I didn't know they showed Artist's Books either, but it seems they do.

Zine World No.28

My Make a Zine illustration features in Zine World No.28

"Announcing the release of Zine World #28, This 50-page, full-size issue features: 

more than 340 reviews of zines, comics, chapbooks, books, DVDs, magazines, and other self-published materials. An article about the zine scene in Japan by Gianni Simone a column by Michelle Aiello (Indigo Zine) called “People Are Complete Fucking Assholes, Or How I Lost My PO Box”
an art piece by Jackie Batey called “Make a Zine” a comic strip from the zine Intellectual Property Is Theft: Copyright, Anti-Copyright, Public Domain, and Creative Commons an updated list of zine review zines & websites information sharing about distros & stores, zine libraries, zine resources, and upcoming zine events a report from the first New York City Zine Fest cover art by e. war and much more!

Get your hands on a copy by sending $4 to:
PO Box 330156
Murfreesboro TN 37133-0156, USA.

Future Fantasteek! No.8 Where you can see it...

Open publication - Free publishing - More comic

Copies of Future Fantasteek! Issue 8 are now available in the following collections: 

• Special Collections - University of Iowa, University Libraries, Iowa City, IA,  USA
• Special Collections - Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ, USA
• Centre for Fine Print Research - UWE, Bristol, School of Creative Arts, Bristol UK
• Reed College Library, Portland, OR, USA
• Duke University, Durham NC, USA
• Zineopolis, University of Portsmouth UK
• Toronto Zine Library, ON, Canada
• Artists' Books - Tate Britain, Tate Library, London UK
• Modern British Collections/Social History - The British Library, London UK
• Library and Learning Resources - London College of Communication, London UK
• zinelibrary.info, Olympia, WA, USA
• {Disarmed}, Bedeteca de Lisboa, Olivais, Portugal
• Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection - Chicago, IL, USA
• The Arthur and Mata Jaffe Collection - Florida Atlantic University Libraries, Boca Raton, FL, USA
• LEGAL DEPOSIT OFFICE, The British Library, Boston Spa, UK
• The National Art Library - Word & Image Department, V and A Museum, London UK

Future Fantasteek! No.8 The Pholgiston Issue

Future Fantasteek! No.8 is finally finished. It will be ready to post around next week.
I make 50 copies and the first 30 are free to zine collections or libraries, if you want one for a collection, email me at: jackie@dampflat.com

Open publication - Free publishing - More comic

In spite of being out-of-ideas Damp Research Facilities have filled sketchbooks with pointless drawings for your delectation. As usual the Damp Staff have been out and about eavesdropping on tedious mobile phone conversations, designing products for a better future and trying to get away with passing this off as art, I mean, honestly! What else? Well Damp Research has proved conclusively that, as suspected, the world is circling-the-drain...

TIME FOR ACTION:What we REALLY need now are some more middle-managers to form a committee, to draw up an agenda, to propose a strategic plan that addresses concerns both real and implied of whoever it was who started this whole thing in the first place. Pass the biscuits please...

To read the whole zine visit:

http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/zines/future8/index.htm

The Secret Library of Solihull 8th March - 8th May 2010

Damp Flat Books will be featured in a forthcoming artists' books exhibition in Solihull.

"Delve into our secret library of artists' books this spring with a show dedicated to the genre.

Installation, projection and experiments with paper technology will all be showcased."

www.solihull.gov.uk/gallery

The Secret Library of Solihull

8th March - 8th May 2010

Solihull Gallery

Homer Road, Solihull, West Midlands B91 3RG

The International Postal Art Project, Bristol, 2010

The format will be a postcard which has another two postcards attached (using a concertina fold and perforation). 240 artists are taking part and the confirmed first exhibition date is; 

30th April - 7th May 2010The International Postal Art Project, Bristol, 2010
F Block Gallery
The Faculty of Creative Arts,
Bower Ashton Campus,
The University of the West of England,
Kennel Lodge Road,
Bristol, BS3 2JT
UK

Tate Britain buys Battered

A copy of Battered has just been bought by the Tate Library, it'll be housed in the Hyman Kreitman Reading Rooms.

Visitors may use the Tate Library and Archive collections in the Hyman Kreitman Reading Rooms. Admission is free but you are required to register.

http://www.tate.org.uk/research/researchservices/readingrooms/

Happy Xmas from Damp Flat Books

This is my 2009 Xmas Email Card, the photos were taken at a Christmas Market in London last week, where a rather credit-crunch santa was scaring children and the signpost was strangely revealing about the Christmas experience...

Book Arts Newsletter - Issue 54

Every month-six weeks, The Book Arts Newsletter is published at the CFPR, edited by Sarah Bodman. This Blog is featured in issue no.54

It can be downloaded as a PDF from here (along with all the back issues):
 http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/newspdfs/54.pdf

International Postal Art Project 2010

This is my postcard image for the International Postal Art Project, Bristol 2010.
Each participant was sent a set of three perforated blank postcards, each artist creates one card and then posts the bundle on to the next artist. The project is curated by Helen Allsebrook and is due to be exhibited in Bristol, UK next year.
My image is an illustration of Sarah Palin's rather idiotic quote about why everyone should eat meat.

Future Fantasteek! Issue No.2 Now on Issuu

I've just uploaded Future Fantasteek! No.2 to Issuu.com, so now you can flick through the whole of this zine online.

Book Arts Newsletter - Issue 53

Every month-six weeks, The Book Arts Newsletter is published at the CFPR, edited by Sarah Bodman. Battered is featured in issue no.53 on page 19.
It can be downloaded as a PDF from here (along with all the back issues):
http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/newspdfs/53.pdf

New Book - Battered

Battered 95mm x 215mm wih 22 printed, folded pages, edition of 20

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. 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 details a packet chips being eaten, next to an image of slowly disappearing fish. The reverse pages show photographs taken over a number of years in the U.K., Gibraltar and Spain of chip shop ‘A’ boards - celebrating our culture of fish n’ chips. The book is covered in PVC table cloth material, bound in the style of a Japanese account book with folded pages. It is packaged in a chip shop bag that’s been printed with an original 2-colour lino cut, it also comes with its own wooden chip fork and ‘miracle fish’.


To flick through this book visit my website here:
http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/battered/index.htm

This book will be exhibited at 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

Copies of Battered have just been purchased by:

• The British Library for their Artists' Books Collection
• Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE, Bristol, UK

Damp Flat Books now available in the Minnesota Center for Book Arts

Damp Flat Books now has a stockist in the USA - MCBA Minnesota Center for Book Arts Opening times: Tuesdays: 10 am to 9 pm; Wednesdays through Saturdays: 10 am to 5 pm; Sundays: noon to 4 pm. Minnesota Center for Book Arts is located in the Open Book Building in downtown Minneapolis, 1011 Washington Ave S, Suite 100, Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA.
The MCBA are now stocking, Mortal Coil, Anxious Homes, Running a Secret Society, Headroom and Future Fantasteek No.7.
There's a special event on October 13th called An Evening of Fine Wine and Fine Books in our studios showcasing new Book Art in The Shop. This event was a huge success the last few years and attracted artists, collectors, and new faces who wanted to find out more about artists books.

The Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artsits’ Book Award

Damp in Ditchwater has been selected for the SCU exhibition.

The Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artsits’ Book Award is coordinated by the SCU nextart Gallery, 89 Magellan Street, Lismore, NSW, Australia. Now in it’s 5th year this annual award provides Southern Cross University with an opportunity to continue to develop an artists’ book collection of national significance and in so doing also contribute to the development and awareness of artists’ books as an art form. Exhibition opening & announcement of acquisitions August 11 - exhibition continues to September 22.

Closure 2009 - Exhibition

The Gallery, The University of Northampton, 15th August–19th September 2009 at artworks-MK, Milton Keynes, UK.

We're Sorry_ has been submitted for this travelling artists' book exhibition from the We Love Your Books Collective. After the exhibiton, We're Sorry_ will join the WLYB permanent archive.

Future Fantasteek! Issue No.7

Issue No.7 July 2009
...Fiddling Your Expenses Issue

Softback Zine printed in colour on cream and peach tinted papers, staple bound. A5 size containing 16 printed pages. Bright yellow card cover with 2 rhinestones. Issue Seven: Brighton 2009, edition size of fifty.

The Damp Research Facilities have been terribly busy shredding their expenses claims for the last ten years. I mean who’d have thought the public would have gotten knocky about perfectly okay claims for moat-cleaning and second homes, when they’ve all busy thieving handfuls of biros from work.So what if a few deserving Damp Staff want a new telly? Who wouldn’t begrudge them some small comforts? What else? Well Damp Research has proved conclusively that money is vital for happiness and in the spirit of you can never be too happy...keep fiddling the claim forms

Future Fantasteek! Issues: 1 and 7 have just been made available on Issuu.com these issues can be flicked through and bookmarked.
Future Fantasteek! No.1 - http://issuu.com/futurefantasteek/docs/ff1
Future Fantasteek! No.7 - http://issuu.com/futurefantasteek/docs/ff7


All issues of Future Fantasteek! can be viewed at: www.dampflat.com

Where Have All The Rich People Gone? - Exhibition

Where Have All The Rich People Gone - Kiss The Crisis
Exhibition in Copenhagen, my 'Million Squid Note' from Future Fantasteek! Issue 6 will feature in this group show about the current economic crisis. To see the show in progress visit Banko's group page here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=104247356368#/event.php?eid=190768945345

Banko / VM -bjerget
Ørestad Boulevard 55
Copenhagen, Denmark
Private view is on 15 May 2009 between 17:00 - 20:00

Place, Identity and Memory – Exhibition

Place, Identity and Memory – books made by artists
Opens 23 May to 28 June 2009, Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, Scotland.

Then the exhibition tours libraries and other venues across Dumfries and Galloway, ending at Stranraer Museum, 55 George Street, Stranraer, DG9 7JP, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland between the 26th September – 31st October 2009, to coincide with the annual Literary Festival at nearby Wigtown, Scotland’s Book Town. This is a travelling exhibition by IRIS. The aim of IRIS is to develop Dumfries and Galloway as a recognised centre for book arts in Scotland and internationally. Headroom and Damp in Ditchwater both feature in the exhibition and catalogue

More Future Fantasteek! available on Issuu.com

Future Fantasteek! Issues: 3: 4 and 6 are now available on Issuu.com these issues can be flicked through and bookmarked. The file sizes means that images can be enlarged easily. If you like this system of viewing my zines, please leave a comment in Issuu. 


To see my zines visit issuu.com and search for Future Fantasteek!, 
I will add more back issues later:

Future Fantasteek! No.3 - http://issuu.com/futurefantasteek/docs/ff3



Future Fantasteek! No.4 - http://issuu.com/futurefantasteek/docs/ff4



Future Fantasteek! No.6 - http://issuu.com/futurefantasteek/docs/fantasteek6

He bought me a soda and he tried to molest me in a parking lot, Vol.2.

Ding Dong! was specially created for this collective zine about song lyrics that get stuck in your head. This song, from The Wizard of Oz 1939 film, remained immovable during October, for no real reason I can think of. There's something about the song that is rather hysterical (not in a funny sense, more urgent), and in my imagination it was being shouted, rather than tunefully sung. Since I couldn't remeber any other lines from the song, these few went round and round and round and round and round...

Limited Edition Prints Now Available

I've designed a new section of my website selling limited edition prints, available in A4 now and A3 in the future. Printed on heavyweight 220gsm acid-free paper. All prints are embossed with the Damp Flat Books monogram and numbered and signed in pencil. 


To visit this section click here...
http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/print/print.htm

Future Fantasteek! Issue No.6

Future Fantasteek! ISSUE SIX : MARCH 2009
...Quantitative Easing Issue

Softback Zine printed in colour on white, green and yellow paper.
includes a free Million Squid Note that can obviously be photocopied as required - in line with good-'ol quantitative easing. Staple bound zine. A5 size containing 16 printed pages. Soft silver cover with sparkling green arrow. Issue Six: Brighton 2009, edition size of fifty.

The Damp Research Facilities haven't been inventing many new life-saving gadgets this season, since they've been flat-out printing money.
It's fantstic!

want a new BIG FLAT telly?
Just photocopy the million-sqid note included with this issue and buy what ever you'd like...
with enough change left for a packet of Spangles.

To view the whole zine visit: http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/zines/future6/index.htm

Zine Fest - The Women's Library

Saturday, January 24 2009, 12:00pm - 4:00pm
The Women's Library 
London Metropolitan University
25 Old Castle Street, London, E1 7NT

"...Ever wanted to make your own magazine or comic? Zine Fest is a hands-on day celebrating women’s involvement in self- publishing.Bringing together innovative publishers, artists, illustrators and crafters, this event shares easy techniques for making zines and visuals and advice on publishing projects from those in the know."

Future Fantasteek! will be on display and then joining the Women's Library Archive.

http://www.futurefantasteek.com

Compilation: Three Exhibitions on Books

One section of this show is the travelling exhibition, Shelter Artist's Book Exhibition. 

January 28th - March 31st 2009
Holy Cross, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, One College Street, Worcester, Massachusetts 01610-2395, USA

Headroom and Anxious Homes are both in this exhibition.