HOME - collaborative bookwork

These are the first sample pages from HOME - an Artists' Book, where 50 illustrators were selected to
produce a diecut house with opening flaps, in response to the theme of 'Home'. The page is about 30cm high. More images to follow when the final book is compiled and finished. Book created by Making Spaces, UK.

Future Fantasteek! No.12 - Aisles of Chunder

Open publication - Free publishing - More comic

NEW OUT - almost...
Future Fantasteek! No.12 - Aisles of Chunder
The Olympics, the Diamond Jubliee and Dickens, what's not to like?
As usual, the first 30 copies go to libraries and collections, want one?
email me, bateyjackie@googlemail.com

http://issuu.com/futurefantasteek/docs/ff12

Future Fantasteek! No.11 - Sunbeams From Cucumbers

Future Fantasteek! Issue No.11 - Sunbeams From Cucumbers is out now.
Softback Zine printed in colour on cream, yellow and tinted papers, saddle-stitched.
A5 size containing 16 printed pages. Blue card cover with small dye-cut and free saint card insert. Brighton 2011, edition size of fifty.

This issue features two guest artists.

Joe Kolessides - http://www.flickr.com/photos/happyhateful

Gregory Reuben Levitt - http://www.gregoryreubenlevitt.com

So far, issue 11 has found itself a home at these locations...

• Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE, Bristol, School of Creative Arts, U.K. 
• Printed Historical Sources, 1914-present, The British Library, London, U.K. 
• Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), Rivington Place, London, U.K. 
• Library and Archive, Tate, Millbank, London, U.K. 
• National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London, U.K. 
• Library, London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle, London, U.K. 
• Zineopolis, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, U.K. 
• University of Brighton, St Peter's House Library, Brighton, U.K. 
• University of Iowa, University Libraries, Iowa City, IA, U.S.A. 
• Reed College Library, Portland, OR, U.S.A. 
• Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ, U.S.A. 
• Jaffe Center for Book Arts, Florida Atlantic University Library, Boca Raton, FL, U.S.A. 
• Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection, Chicago, IL, U.S.A. 
• Aboveground Zine Library, Kenner, LA, U.S.A. 
• Duke University, Durham NC, U.S.A. 
• Colorado College Special collections, Colorado Springs, CO, U.S.A. 
• Toronto Zine Library, Toronto, ON, Canada. 
• {Disarmed}, Bedeteca de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.

Future Fantasteek! No.10 - Royal Wedding Souvenir

ISSUE TEN : FEBRUARY 2011
Royal Wedding Souvenir Issue

Softback Zine printed in colour on cream paper, saddle-stitched.
A5 size containing 16 printed pages. Silver metallic cover.
Issue Ten: Brighton 2011, edition size of fifty.

Who’d have thought it... ISSUE TEN, of this rambling nonsense.
The Damp Research team have been trotting out this stuff for FIVE years now.
At some point you might have thought someone would find something better to do
...but apparently not. Well, the walls of money have stuck to rich people again and University is now soooo expensive only the Queen can afford to send her eldest son, don’t even bother sending girls - they just need to be pretty these days, start saving up for a boob job and sod the degree...
(unless it’s in cosmetic surgery)
Damp Research - thinking for you, because you’re watching X-Factor...

The Printmaking Center of New Jersey, Autumn Print Exchange

I've just mailed an edition of 12 lino-cuts off to The Printmaking Center of New Jersey for their 'Autumn Print Exchange'. Hand pulled printmaking techniques must be used, woodcuts, litho, intaglio, photography, lino, silkscreen etc. The Printmaking Council of New Jersey (PCNJ) is a non-profit fine arts center specializing in print and paper media.

Printmaking Center of New Jersey
http://www.printnj.org
440 River Road
Branchburg, NJ 08876
USA

Theme of exhibition: Sea-change: a poetic term referencing a gradual transformation in which the form is retained but the substance is replaced, as with petrification. PCNJ invites participants to address the visual interpretation of this theme as "see"-change. The prints will be exhibited in the PCNJ gallery space between November 24 - December 24, 2010

This lino cut started life as a print that was to pastiché the paper bags that British chip shops wrap fish n’ chips in. The print originally appeared in red and yellow in limited edition, printed on to food quality paper bags - it served as the packaging for the artist’s book within and also the title of the work.

I have been wanted to focus on my printmaking and this exhibition at the PCNJ seemed really positive. This print is about the British tradition of battering and frying fish, but with no consideration of how fish stocks have fallen and now even seemingly common species are being added to the Red List. The final print, 2 colour lino cut (orange and black) hand printed with a Japanese baren on Japanese archival paper. Limited edition of 12 prints numbered, signed, embossed with artist's logo and dated 2 November 2010.

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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

Future Fantasteek! Issue No.5

ISSUE FIVE : OCTOBER 2008
...Credit Crunch Issue

Softback Zine printed in greyscale on yellow paper, with colour center pages, includes a tipped-in dubious banknote and rubber stampped flies. staple bound. A5 size containing 16 printed pages. Bright pink card cover with yellow dots. 
Issue Five: Brighton 2008, edition size of fifty.

The credit crunch issue looks at liars, not using your brain and spotting fakes. There's free money from the bank of Future Fantasteek included as a worthless free gift. The Damp Research Facilities answer these questions: Why are people so nasty to each other ? Is greed really the future? How many of us have eaten from the Tree of Stupidity ? Can genetically enhanced monkeys with clipboards replace office staff? And could octopus DNA enable you to work longer hours? More pointless questions to ponder in a disappointing world...


To see the whole zine follow this link
http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/zines/future5/index.htm

New Book - Headroom

The book is a visual response to the drive to fit more and more people into an ever diminishing space. The U.K is under pressure to find more housing and every patch of land, including gardens,are being built upon. New housing is tightly packed with little concern for the environment or the needs of the new residents. Whilst reading Roget's Thesaurus, I noticed the thematic listing of words was taking on a poetic significance, I used the word lists in the order they appeared in the Thesaurus to convey a sense of melancholy amongst the crowds. The book is printed on accounting paper to show financial pressures, the drawings are a mixture of my photographs of buildings and drawings of imaginary future towers, unintentionally imprisoning their tenants. The text is rubber stamped. 

290mm x 110mm. 14 pages with ending with edition number, signature and maker's emboss. 
To view this book visit my website at: http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/headroom/index.htm

Now touring the U.S. as part of the Shelter Artist's Book Exhibition.

• April 10 - 22, 2008 - Wedeman Gallery, Yamawaki Art and Cultural Center, Lasell College, Newton, MA, USA
• May 9 - June 19, 2008 - Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Silver Spring, MD, USA
• July 9 - August 15, 2008 - Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, USA
• Oct 6 – 31, 2008 - Montserrat College of Art’s 301 Gallery, 301 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA, USA
• April 8 - May 3, 2009 - Wells College, Aurora, NY, USA
• January - February 2009 - Holy Cross College Art Gallery, Worcester, MA, USA

New Book - Reboot

Reboot - Limited Edition of 10, Brighton 2008

400mm x 170mm, a double spiral-bound pair of books each of 20 pages
The cover is clear acrylic closed with magnetic catches
Hand-cut rubberstamp icons are added to final printed pages
Several real capacitors and fuses are threaded into two of the pages

This is a book about computers. Do they really hate us? Why are computers so indignant when you want to open files, rewarding your impetuousness with spinning balls and hourglass icons. This is a book about technological brokenness. We rely more and more on technology and computers, ignoring the fact that there seems to be a mechanical revolt gradually gathering pace all around us - soon the only tasks left for us will be hand-drawing the Out of Order signs to hang on the machines. Over a period of time, I’ve been recording technology failures photographically as well as drawing the language of brokenness, cryptic messages such as, disc error and are you sure you want to shut-down?

I've combined my photographs and drawings into this pair of books, added to this hand-cut rubber stamps of familiar computer icons - hourglass, watch, cursor arrow and older legacy icons such as the floppy disk. Scanned legacy peripherals such as scsi leads and old network cables tangle across the pages, to remind us just how fast technology is moving.
The books work as a pair and should be opened and read simultaneously.


To View this book in more detail visit:
http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/reboot/index.htm

This book was created for the Re:2008 Exhibition held by the We Love Your Books Collective
The exhibition will start at:
Artworks MK, Milton Keynes, UK from 14th July–14th Aug. 2008
The Gallery, Herefordshire College of Art – Summer 2008
The Space Gallery, University of Portsmouth from 3rd-14th Nov. 2008
Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight, UK. Dec. 2008

Reboot is also held in:

Modern British Collections, The British Library, London, UK
The Ministry of Books, University of portsmouth, UK

Future Fantasteek! Issue No.4

ISSUE FOUR : FEBRUARY 2008
...Sick-O Issue

Softback Zine printed in greyscale on orange and yellow paper, staple bound.
A5 size containing 16 printed pages. Day-glo orange cover with yellow dots.
Issue Four: Brighton 2008, edition size of fifty.

The Damp Flat Research team are wondering why eveyone's so sick lately. They are also quickly investing, on-the-side, in the pharmaceutical industry. What with Norovirus and advice on how to take a 'sickie' there seems to be no healthy folk left. This issue also includes how to spot whether you have ended-up working for the Departement of Stupidity and the right way to wash your hands. I would write more, but I'm feeling off-colour and need to lay down... 


To view this zine in more detail go here...
http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/zines/future4/index.htm


Or to flick through this zine on Issuu go here:
http://issuu.com/futurefantasteek/docs/ff4

Future Fantasteek! Issue No.3

ISSUE THREE : JULY 2007
...Carbon Footprint Issue 

Softback Zine printed in greyscale on yellow paper, staple bound with central section in colour. 
A5 size containing 16 printed pages. Bronze cover with dye cut shape.
Issue three: Brighton 2007, edition size of fifty.

Once again, the Damp Flat Research team share their fantastic inventions, ideas and advice.
The evil central colour pull-out has a mirror where you can see your evil twin or simply worry more with the new Damp Worry Doll. 
There are inventions to help you spot a bad idea; pretend to talk like a grown-up or slow yourself down to avoid having to do anything.
That and so much more - are you really being watched? 

To view this zine in more detail visit:

http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/zines/future3/index.htm

Or to flick through online visit issuu at:

http://issuu.com/futurefantasteek/docs/ff3

Future Fantasteek! will soon available from:
PURE GROOVE Music Store, 679 Holloway Road, London N19 5SE, UK

New Book - Mortal Coil

11” (28cm) width x 4” (10.5cm) height x ½” (1cm) thickness – approx.

Unfolded each page is 15” long (39cm)
Heavy grey millboard covers.
Wire binding in dark green.
Nine pages, eight of which fold-out, printed on 130gsm cartridge paper
Trace fly-leaf, title of book on embossed vertical belly-band, numbered and signed in an edition of ten, made in Brighton, United Kingdom 2007
Much of my previous work has centred around themes of advertising and anxiety, recently I have been experimenting with photo collage and hand drawn typography. I usually write my own texts, but your exhibition requirements were really interesting - affording me the opportunity to explore some new literature. In response to a forthcoming exhibition in Kentucky I started to explore the visual possibilities of the poems of Robert Penn Warren. I’ve based my book Mortal Coil on the poem, Mortal Limit by Robert Penn Warren.

The text of the poem is split into 7 sections, hand drawn typographically to emphasise key words. The typography sits above photo collages (taken in the South of England) exploring the melancholy of the landscape as it metamorphoses from undeveloped ruralscapes into urban jungles. Themes of urban decay and environmental issues are very much in focus in Britain at the moment, and it was fascinating in the poem to have aspirational descriptions of the landscape tinged with the failings of the human spirit. The book is designed to have folding pages that when opened-up reveal darker elements from the previous page. The symbol of the hawk is a reminder of the source of the text,
a favourite motif of the poet.
My book both begins and ends with the image of the hawk (a familiar icon within Penn Warren's work). The colours in the book change from greens through to blacks and reds as the threat to the landscape is realised. The book is created using a combination of photoshop, digital photography, hand drawn typography, quarkxpress and illustrator.

The title Mortal Coil derives from an archaic English expression (still in use) meaning the ‘troubles of the world’ – popularised by Shakespeare in Hamlet.

This book was created for the exhibition:

Visions and Voices: Art Inspired by Kentucky Poetry, Prose and Songwriting
7th July - 6th October 2007
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
Louisville. KY 40202
USA

www.kentuckyarts.org

New Book - Damp In Ditchwater

Postcard souvenir booklet. First edition of twenty - Brighton UK
Heavy yellow card cover with shaped edge, printed in either, dark-orange or pale-turquoise.
Introduction page followed by 10 detachable heavyweight colour postcards with tissue interleaves. One card contains a tipped-in stamp and handwritten salute.

"A charming history - told through postcards - of the philanthropic, family-run Damp Industries’

partnership with the sleepy town of Ditchwater-by-Sea. Damp Industries’ self-appointed mission, is to strive until culture, learning and suitable products reside in the South."

In this sequence of ten postcards the intriguing relationship between Damp
and Ditchwater-by-Sea is slowly revealed.

• What happened on the opening day at the Damp Museum? 
• Who wears the Cod-Sash? 
• Why is the curator missing? 

This book has grown out my fascination for less-than-exciting museums. I particularly enjoy the secondhand mannequins with scuffed noses and displays that have been gathering dust for years. I make a point of searching out the least-popular tourist attractions, in the hope of finding a display of manky plastic fruit or - my favourite - a historical family diorama. The trend in swish, technologically interactive museums are fine for children, but the creepy dank interiors of the deserted local museum are my delight. I have been recording these museum interiors for a number of years in the hope of celebrating these fast-disappearing gems. The second-rate displays often reveal an 'any old rubbish for the tourists' attitude that is sharper than any deliberate satire.

The narrative behind Damp in Ditchwater is the story of an unscruplous company that, hounded out of its own country, has started over again in England. The clash of values, along with the townsfolk's desperation to 'be put on the map' reveals itself through the comments on the reverse of the postcards. Starting slight but getting more and more vocal until there is little room to actually write a message on the postcard. The Damp employees and Ditchwater townsfolk have an uneasy alliance, where both are grittedly out-for-themselves.

To see this book in more detail visit:

http://www.dampflat.com/DAMPFLAT/books/ditch/index.htm

Exhibitions:


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.
Damp in Ditchwater has been selected for this 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.

Scheduled to appear in the November-December issue of the Book Arts Newsletter No.31, UWE, Bristol, UK 

Babylon Lexicon - New Orleans, 14-30 Nov. 2008
Damp in Ditchwater and Headroom will be on show at the New Orleans Bookfair - Babylon Lexicon. - Future Fantasteek! Issue No.5 will also be exhibited, at the same time, during the New Orleans Zine Fair.

Re: 2008 The Gallery, The University of Northampton, Monday 12th – Thursday 29th May 2008
New book - Reboot has just been completed and accepted for the exhibition Re: 2008, Damp in Ditchwater joins the exhibition as part of The Ministry of Books Show.
Venues:
....The Gallery, The University of Northampton, Avenue Campus, St. George's Avenue, Northampton, NN2 6JD, UK.
....Artworks MK, Milton Keynes, UK from 14th July–14th August;
....Herefordshire College of Art – Summer 2008;
....The Space Gallery, University of Portsmouth from 3rd-14th November 2008.
....Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight, UK

Collections:

• The Modern British Collections, The British Library, London, UK
• Center for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol, UK
• Hyman Kretiman Research Library at Tate Britain, Millbank, London, UK
• The Old School Press, Hinton Charterhouse, Bath, UK
• The Culture Archive, Brighton, UK
• The Ministry of Books, Portsmouth, UK