The book measures 18cm x 12cm with a brown & orange manilla cover
Saddle-stitched binding with 12 pages on 130gm cartridge paper and fly-leaf.Produced in editions of 20, First Edition produced in 2000
The book is altered for each new edition.
I am fascinated by secret societies, especially the bizarre rituals that the members indulge in, in order to be recognised by one of their colleagues but unnoticed by non-members. This book purports to be a manual for running your own secret society. There are sections on ‘secret handshakes’, ‘how to remain unnoticed’ and a loose card ‘courtesy hand-markings recognition chart’ as well as a free ‘computer enhanced match’ to burn the book after it’s been memorised. The introduction explains how it is better to be the only member of your society in order to remain secret in this nonsensical book.
Each book contains a turquoise chart, small envelope with a secret password and ‘match’
to burn the book.
To read the whole thing scroll here:
This book is featured on the V&A website under 'artists' books' alongside an interview with me and five other UK book artists.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/artists-books-interviews/
PRESS and RELEASE, Phoenix Gallery Brighton April - June 2013
As part of the Phoenix Gallery's Press & Release artists' books exhibition, I will be showing everything in the Damp Flat Books catalogue! All 22 artist's book titles, along with 14 issues of my artzine Future Fantasteek! and a selection of sketchbooks. I will also be giving a gallery talk and running a zine workshop.
Light Grey Art Lab, 118 E 26th Street #101, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Medal Winner - 2nd Seoul International Bookarts Fair 2005
3rd June - 8th June 2005 - COEX Pacific Hall, Korean Publishers Association, 105-2, Sagan-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-190, KOREA.
Running a Secret Society No.20 was submitted and awarded a medal in the Book Arts competition. The 2nd Seoul International Book Arts Fair is the only fair of it's kind in Asia, information about the fair will be sent to major TV broadcasting companies(KBS, MBC, SBS etc) newspapers, magazines, galleries, museums, and libraries. There were 200,000 visitors to the fair last year.
Click to see a list of all the winning competition entries
The Peculiar
This book was showcased in The Peculiar, a comic of collected works by artists and designers in the U.K., who explore humour visually, this book featured in the 2002 edition
Pink as a Soft Idea
Running a Secret Society No.20 and Anxious Homes both exhibited in the University of Brighton North Gallery as part of the conference LIAM:3 living in a material world, 2001 where I also presented a paper.
Secrets Exhibition
Group exhibition, The Hague, The Netherlands, March 2000
Click to see the Private View/Advertisement
Exhibited at Making Unmaking conference, University of Portsmouth, August 2000
London Artists' Book Fair
Barbican, London and ICA Galleries London
This book is held in permanent collections at:
Modern British Collections, The British Library, London, U.K.
The V and A Museum, UK
Golda-Meir Library, UWM LIbraries, Milwaukee, USA
James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries, Richmond, USA
Book Arts & Special Collections, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA, USA
The Culture Archive, UK
Chelsea Library, UK
Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, Chicago, USA
Center for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol, UK
Eton College Library, UK
St. Peter's House Library, Brighton, UK
Knights Park Library, Kingston University, Kingston-Upon-Thames, UK
