Lynne Barker
How did you become involved in artist’s books? I see the artist’s book as the ideal form to act as an archive for my drawings. The book form makes them easily available to others. What is the focus of your practice? I am interested in …
Author: artistsbookcentre
Anja Uhren
How did you become involved in artist’s books? I’ve always been fascinated by sequential art and books are the perfect medium to deliver a variety of messages and stories which to me is the most natural way to express my creativity. What is the focus …
Less Than 500 Press
Mark Callard/ Foxhole Magazine
How did you become involved in artist’s books?
About ten years ago, I started
writing poetry as a way of staying sane during a long period of mental ill
health and rubbish jobs. My friend’s sister is a graphic designer, and so
between the three of us, we edited my work down and created a book, but one
that also had a strong visual identity. I also made an A4 zine on the
photocopier at my local Staple and took copies of that and the poetry book to
sell at the Alternative Press fair in London. I hadn’t been to many events like
it but have always been a book and comic nerd, so I immediately fell in love
with all the weird and wonderful things that people were making and selling,
things that existed without anyone’s backing or an official stamp of approval.
From there, I started making more books and zines, exhibited at as many zine
fairs and DIY art markets as I could. Eventually I went back to University in
my mid-30’s to study Graphic Design and Visual Art, as I wanted to learn how to
have a go at some of the things I was seeing at the events I’d been attending.
Once I was no longer a poor student, I started doing Artists Book Fairs up and
down the country (because it’s not all about London).
What is the focus of your practice?
My three years at University were great but left me with mixed feelings about
the various disciplines, or where I fitted in. I was in the Graphic Design
class but I hung out with the Fine Art students in the room next door, so I got
the best of both worlds but was also aware of things I didn’t like about both
practices. I’m interested in content and like to create something people can
engage with, rather than just saying ‘that looks nice’ and forgetting about it
five minutes later, or not engaging with it at all because it needs to be
explained. I would say my work is about stories and narratives, places, time,
textures and decay (amongst other things) but how and when any of these themes
might appear will vary from one project to the next.
What are you working on at the moment?
Two photography zines featuring visits to Chernobyl and Hong Kong, and a new issue of Foxhole zine, which is a collection of other people’s writing, art and photography. The new issue has been curated by photographer Mary Scott, which is the first time I’ve handed the reins over to someone else, so I’m looking forward to seeing how different this issue is compared to the ones I’ve curated.
Twitter: @foxholemagazine
Instagram: foxhole_magazine maryscottart
Jan Hopkins
What is the focus of your practice? For me the artist’s book moves in and out of the digital realm. I work with machine generated text printed on demand by mini printers driven by Raspberry Pi computers, images drawn by robot and text on screens, …
Nise McCulloch
How did you become involved in artist’s books? By accident really. Books and literature have always been central to my career & voluntary work. I was working on a writing project exploring destruction in literature which turned into a wider, interdisciplinary artistic venture producing a …
Grania Hayes
How did you get involved in artist’s books?
I became involved in making artists books whilst printmaking with Michelle Avison at Morley College. One day she suggested we should make books. At first, I was reluctant, but I had a go and I cut vinyl shapes and printed a pamphlet book. That was a good ten years ago and since then I cannot stop. It is intriguing and exciting to experiment.
What is the focus of your practice?
The focus of my practice is telling a story even if it might appear to be abstract.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently working on cut, paste and photocopy. The resulting images are then made into pamphlet books.
My current project is using the above technique to tell the story of the people and animals on Primrose Hill in London which is where I live.
Hilke Kurzke
How did you become involved in artist’s books? After my PhD, while looking for a job, I rekindled my older hobby of binding books. When I first started out with binding, in the 90s, I learned from books that I borrowed (and photocopied) at my …
Joanna Robson
How did you become involved in artist’s books?
I became involved with artists’ books during studying for my MA in Authorial Illustration at University College Falmouth. I was interested in the idea of telling stories within a single picture, and as the pictures I made grew increasingly wide to accommodate a narrative, so they evolved in to panoramic leporello books. I began to combine this with etching and other printmaking techniques and soon I was making concertina books made from hand-cut etchings. I found it a versatile medium in which to express stories and have been working with it ever since.
What is the focus of your practice?
The main focus of my practice is always wordless storytelling. The stories are usually a little bit gothic in theme and rely on laser cut silhouettes to illustrate the narrative.
What are you working on at the moment?
Two new artist’s books are being worked on at the moment, one of which is a wordless re-telling of one of Robert Burns’ poems. The other is a lesser-known folk tale, but is one that I’m really looking forward to working on in the months ahead.
Social Media
@Joannakrobson
Carla Moss
How did you become involved in artist’s books? I started making artist’s books because of my concern for the planet. I wanted to create things that were smaller and more portable whilst still maintaining my artist practice. This included making one-off books of drawings, books …