Louisa Boyd

How did you become involved in artist’s books?

I first started making artist’s books as I was using sketchbooks in an unusual manner – cutting through pages to make complex images that relied on the pages before and after them to complete them. From this, I began to see the artist’s book as an avenue to explore paper as a three-dimensional medium and, traditional bookbinding techniques provided a core structure for making paper sculptures. As my work has progressed, I have integrated more traditional bookbinding skills and pursued training so that I can incorporate further techniques into my one off and low edition pieces such as leather work and hand tooling. In conjunction with this, I have developed my work using a variety of printmaking methods such as etching, linocut, woodcut, wood engravings and screen printing. The combination of hand book binding and printmaking seem to complement one another and support concept in many of my works which often address ideas of memory and knowledge and how this is transferred across generations: they both use skills that rely on methods that have remained unchanged for centuries.

What is the focus of your practice?

Most of my work centres around the idea of place and the connection we have as individuals to both our environment and those that surround us. Symbols of nature, mapping and representations of both our terrestrial and celestial environment feature frequently in my pieces; imagery, often abstract in nature, that attempts to define the relationship we have with home.

What are you working on at the moment?

Recently I have been working with a series of regular geometric forms – The Platonic Solids – Plato suggested that these shapes represented the five elements -Water, Air, Fire, Earth and Aether. These shapes allow me to refer to the intrinsic connection we have as individuals to our natural surroundings. This body of work incorporates artist’s books, prints and unique paper sculptures.

Facebook – @louisaboydart
Twitter – @LouBoydArt
Instagram – @louisa_boyd
Website – www.louisaboyd.com