Friday 20 September 2019

Artist's Book: Mean Bone (The)

This small hard backed concertina book measures 8cm x 9cm closed.
Length 112cm when fully extended.
Folding concertina with 16 pages printed in black and white with spot orange.

Digitally printed in one section on heavyweight matt stock. 
All numbered, signed and embossed with Damp Flat Books’ logo.
Cover is hardback bound with 2-tone orange book cloth.
Outer casing is  a black card slipcase with dye-cut arrow.
First edition of 20 produced in Brighton in 2017.




Micro Artist’s Book containing a selection of illustrated idioms from several languages (Welsh, French, German, English, Latvian and Spanish). The idioms are all unkind expressions that reveal our inherent impatience with other human beings. The title ‘Mean Bone’ comes from the English expression “She hasn’t got a mean bone in her body” (to mean a kindly person), this book however, contains only ‘mean bones’ - all the snide comments that undermine. The Illustrations are a combination of scraper-board and lino cuts, artistic methods chosen to reflect the scratching and cutting of our languages - words can be painful.


The sequence of pages:





Thursday 21 February 2019

Feast & Famine Exhibition in Newark USA

Very happy to be included in this exhibition in the USA. The Newark Public Library, NJ have loaned my artist's book Battered to this show.



Feast & Famine
Main Gallery, Paul Robeson Galleries at Express Newark, Rutgers University - Newark
On view March 28 - December 14, 2019
Opening reception: March 28th, 6-8 p.m.
https://artgallery.newark.rutgers.edu/exhibitions/feast-famine/




With works by John Baldessari, Gladys Barker Grauer, Jackie Batey, Christopher Cardinale, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Morgan Carothers, Melanie Cervantes, Catherine Chalmers, Dustin Chang and Nicole Schulman, Julie Chen, Claudia Claremi, Willie Cole Conflict Kitchen (Jon Rubin and Dawn Weleski), Sharon Core B. Cortez and B. Riley, Renee Cox, Critical Art Ensemble, M. Gayle “Asali” Dickson, Emory Douglas, Dominique Duroseau, Shanthony Exum, Molly Fair and Jesse Goldstein, Lauren Greenfield, Ella Halpine, Ed Hutchins, Nina Katchadourian, Tamara Kostianovsky, Nicolas Lampert, Warren Lehrer, Mike Libby, Jen Liu, Fernando Martí, Mary Mattingly, Mazatl, Divya Mehra, Marilyn Minter, Mary Mortimer, Taring Padi, Roger Peet Robert Rauschenberg, Favianna Rodriguez, Keary Rosen, Martha Rosler, Erik Ruin, Christopher Russell, Seeds InService: A Papermaking Institute (Melissa Hilliard Potter and Maggie Puckett), Malik Zulu Shabazz, Lucy Sparrow, Meredith Stern, Jen Susman, Swoon, Wayne Thiebaud, Chris Thorson, virocode (Peter D’Auria and Andrea Mancuso), Robert Watts, Emma Wilcox, Joe Wirtheim.

About the Paul Robeson Galleries (from their website)
The Gallery’s programs strive to: present arts and visual culture exhibitions and events of the highest quality; enrich the University arts programs with cross-disciplinary collaborations; provide gallery educational experience to local and regional communities; strengthen collaborative relationships with Greater Newark’s artistic, cultural, and educational organizations; advance Paul Robeson’s legacy of encouraging cross-cultural artistic freedom and cultural democracy; emphasize the role of arts and culture in the shaping and functioning of society; reflect the spirit of the University’s diverse metropolitan context; and enhance the quality of life for the campus and Greater Newark communities.

Here are some images of Battered:



Thursday 27 December 2018

Artist's Book: Evil Eyes


Softback book bound in oatmeal-coloured card. Portrait format measuring 190mm x 110mm.
Title is bound in beads into the spine and closed with a green elastic band.
21 printed pages with tipped-in photos. Photo pages are date stamped.
Second edition of 20, Brighton 2006
First Edition of 10 was made in hardback with a cloth cover (2005)



Whilst travelling to work it was noted, by certain keen individuals, that the world appeared to be full of beings: other than the everyday. With the assistance of an adapted mobile phone camera these ghosts, animal spirits, numen and peri that crowd around us can now be revealed. Mostly captured during regular days – frequently when rain was in the sky. So far we have managed to identify only a few of them – what we know is here, along with our clearest photos and some of our thoughts.
Damp Research Laboratory

To see all the spreads in this book click here...

The images below are photos of the cloth bound first edition.









Wednesday 18 July 2018

Mean Bone goes on show in Kirov, Russia

Mean Bone was selected to join a travelling group exhibition in Russia from 2017 - 2018
Locations are ongoing and can be seen on the organisers website.
Organised and curated by Valery Burov - artistbook.ru





First location:
Regional State Universal Scientific Library Library A. Herzen Kirov, Russia From 16th November 2017 Address: 50, Herzen str., 610000 Kirov, Russia


Second Location:
A. Likhanov Library, Kirov (dates to be confirmed).
(From organisers website, translated from Russian)
http://artistsbook.ru/en/News
The organizing committee announced a new project in the format artist's book titled "Winged phrases, maxims and aphorisms." This topic seems to us, it is of interest not only by the content, but opens before the artist opens up a wide range of technical and creative possibilities. Given the fact that this genre of literary work is brief, concise form, but succinct in content, does not require a large area for the realization of design, we decided to spend it in a miniature book format, that is no more than 100x75 mm.
This is due to the fact that this project, like the previous ones, we plan to show in other cities of the Kirov region and our neighboring regions, and a miniature format, facilitate as the transportation and placement...Each participant will receive a diploma, by the end of the exhibition and the electronic version of the Directory can be downloaded on the website.

From the translated Press Release:

 




Monday 2 April 2018

NEW BOOK - Marshland

Here is a preview of my latest artist's book, Marshland






18cm x 23 cm artist's book with 70 pages
Reproduced from a visual diary (sketchbook) drawn daily during October.
The original sketchbook is a vintage German 'home comments' book.
The illustrations were created using red and blue; Posca pens; Lamy fountain pens; coloured pencils; pastels; index cards and rubber stamps.


The visual diary was a direct response to emotions experienced throughout the month, visualised.
I am considering print options at the moment trying to figure out what feel I want from this book.

Thursday 1 March 2018

Work in Progress - Morass

Very pleased with my large format test prints on archival sustainable heavy matt paper. Once they are fully dried and fixed, I'll be folding 2m concertinas.
I'm planning on cloth-bound hard covers in fuchsia.

Working title: Morass Publication date: TBC when I'm totally happy with it.

The image is a vertical slice from the Bank of England down through the sewers past the London Underground and down into Hell. This satirical vertical cross-section contains two quotes about finance by Charles Dickens. This artist's book was inspired by Our Mutual Friend (1865) and the grasping need for money that integrates all levels of society.


Friday 6 October 2017

Damp Flat Books in exhibition: Ars Libris: Artists’ Books as Ergodic Texts

I'm pleased to announce that Damp Flat Books will be exhibited as part of a group show Ars Libris: Artists’ Books as Ergodic Texts in Bilkent University Library, Art Gallery in Ankara, Turkey, from October 12th to November 13th, 2017
Curated by Andrew J. Ploeg and Attila Gullu.



On show will be Mean Bone


Evil Eyes

Future Fantasteek! No.18

From exhibition organisers website:
'Artists’ books' is a term coined by Diane Vanderlip to describe the pieces gathered in an
exhibition that she curated at Moore College of Art in 1973. But the concept itself arguably dates back much earlier. Defying description and evading definition, artists’ books have generally come to denote works of art crafted as or from actual books. They emphasize physical qualities over literary ones and necessitate unconventional relationships with their “readers,” demanding interactions that are radically distinct from those of traditional books. The difficulty intrinsic to such interactions speaks to the nature of artists’ books as ergodic texts, texts that Espen J. Aarseth maintains require a nontrivial, extra-intellectual effort to traverse. Despite, or perhaps because of, their elusiveness and complexity, such books, including those fashioned by Brian Dettmer, Georgia Russell, Kaspen, and many others, challenge the presumed parameters of the
textual and the visual. In doing so, they raise and respond to urgent questions regarding art, literature, and readership.

Bilkent University Library, Art Gallery in Ankara

Exhibition photos, kindly taken byAttila Gullu