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.