Home to the Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize Collection
How did you become involved in artist’s books? It’s all thanks to who we grew up with! Both of us individually have always been drawn to paper and how you can shape and manipulate it, and books are a very direct way of exploring and displaying that …
How did you become involved with artist’s books? I became involved in artist’s books as a response to developing a project to teach creativity to my adult students. The design of covers developed as a way of using interesting textile surfaces for a functional product …
How did you become involved in artist’s books?As an artist I started making books during my time on the Sheffield Hallam Fine Art MA course, and this interest has continued through my current PhD research.
What is the focus of your practice?
I am interested in both the conceptual system and material object of the book, and how these might be used to explore how sense is sought in language. I use drawing, photography, and writing to materialise error, distraction, and association as part of my disruptive devotion to reading. Fragmentary techniques are employed to reject immediate coherence, opening spaces to reflect on minor processes of meaning-making.
What are you working on currently?
Currently I am working on a set of three books for the practice submission of my PhD. Their status is ambiguous as to whether they are art works, remain as practice research artefacts, or function between these possibilities. Each book object accompanies a particular chapter of my thesis but has also existed in a previous form, definitively as an art work, exhibited or shown as such, but additional material has now been added, the original reformulated, as part of the on-going process of cutting together-apart. One of my interests is how art practice might offer ways of visualising and materialising the thinking or sense-making process in relation to the transmission of physical language. I am using art practice to draw attention to thinking, materialise acts around the construction of sense, as well as celebrating interruption and error as tools for breaking a seemingly never ending flow of information.
social media: twitter @rachelartsmith
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, …
Marches Book Arts Group comprises makers at every level, from those just discovering the joys of book arts to professional artists renowned for their artist’s books. We come from, and share our skills, in a variety of disciplines from textiles and paper sculpture, to calligraphy, …
How did you become involved in artist’s books?
I first came across artist’s books at the exhibition Certain Trees: The Constructed Book, Poem and Object 1964-2008, tucked away in a room at the top of the V&A Museum in 2008. Locked away in a case was a small book called ‘Adjectives for Grasses’ by Moschantel Press with Laurie Clarke’s illustration on the cover. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from this book, desperate to see inside, which I have never managed to do!
After returning about four times before the exhibition closed I kept the thought of this book hidden away, in a secret drawer in my mind.
Roll on a few years later when I was started working full time on my own illustration and lettering work having deciding to leave paid employment and the memory of the book returned. At that point I started researching the world of artist’s books as a way of bringing together my drawings and ideas in a form that could be ‘discovered’ rather than just seen on a flat surface in a frame.
What is the focus of your practice?
I’m interested in using the book format to tell a story through the use of illustration and words/lettering; whether it is street furniture or over looked everyday items, to explore the world of a flower, from bud to folklore, to explore the world around us through illustrated maps that use a particular fold that allows you to fall into the world of the map when you open it.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m currently working on expanding my series maps and I’m also exploring ways to bring lettering and illustration together within my books, where they feature as one image rather than supporting each other. This journey is in its infancy and is currently following its own path…
instagram @inkpotandpen
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 …
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 …
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
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, …