Concertina Books

Having joined the Complete Artist Book Course at Hot Bed Press we have learnt to make concertina books with simple covers and this has stimulated my ideas - leading to new connections between work from different periods.

Essentially I think of Where and Which Way as being the begining and I regularly return to elements of this book. However as I worked on the  I Spy at the Seaside I began to think of it as a day trip, including losing your way, it starting to rain heavily and a longer walk than you wanted.

 I have made several images related to the I Spy books  which are sea orientated - which could provide another book.   I am intrigued by the accidental nature of how imagery occurs, which happened with the covers of the books. Until now I have used scanned in maps, collage and image transfer. However I have also begun to experiment digitally and may also decide to add more text to create more of a narrative.

Double Page Spreads

Whilst the altered books have been a mainstay to my work I have not used them for awhile.  I realised that all my energy  and attention was going into them; preventing me developing individual  pieces.
In reviewing  the work recently, I returned to them, revisiting some pieces  and developing double page spreads. Here are some recent developments - although not all of it is recent work.

Reworkings

Text and Image remain significant throughout the work.  I have begun to develop work in series of connected ideas and revisit previous pieces.

Where and Which Way

I want  explore images from the original altered books and also combine them with motifs developed over the last 3 years. 

February 2014

Portrait Postcards 

On a recent trip to Kendal I found some portrait postcards which have fueled another direction. I like the random nature of the found portrait.

February / March 2014

The Knitted Helmets

This is part of a series began last summer and developed mostly in "The Complete Book of Handcrafts" altered book after I purchased a knitting pattern for balaclavas

Summer 2013

March 2014 

Absence 

The found portraits postcards  have provided another direction and in the same way that I look for artifacts with the previous owners markings so here are a sense of the absent figure

Costal Responses 1

Ravenglass

I had not expected to visit the sea or that the different places would be so contrasting. I only knew  Ravenglass  for the miniature railway I remember being taken to long ago. A wide variety of seascape in quite a small area, offering surprising beachcombing potential.

New Work Part 1 - October 2012

The faber art books have provided a format and backdrop to the development of the work. 

I like to incorporate the incidental text and the serrated edge.

Significant Summer Developments 2

When discussing the development of the work, during the summer with my friend Stella, she recommended Gum Arabic printing. I found a gum arabic workshop at Neo Artists Studio in Bolton and it was a revelation! The "plate" is created using an old style carbon photocopier which lent itself perfectly to my work. I was amazed by the quality prints and have since used both those prints that I created and further prints to develop my work 

I also liked it as the plates began to break up and arranged the fragments from different prints together

Carousel Books

Another device I use for generating images  are making carousel books.  

   

I often start with an A3 photocopy and fold it up and then unfold it and work on it as one piece.

                                         

I call them carousel books because any of the pages can become the cover and this can be changed as the piece develops

                                               

When it is refolded into a carousel book, accidental compositions / conversations arrive; they are added to future work at a range of scales                 

                                       

Occasionally  I don't feel the the refolded carousel book works; then it is cut up and re-assembled into a different arrangement

Altered Books

Altered Books

I have always worked in altered books using the subject matter/ images to inspire my work. I usually choose books that are related to my work in some way but also from the past, as the language is more formal with forgotten phrases and outdated terminology.  A favourite altered book from 1998 was entitled “A Students Handbook of Housewifery”, which was certainly not connected to a love of housework.

 I found  “Where and Which Way” in a local charity shop about 10 or 12 years ago. It is a primer book for learning to read from the early 1970s; what attracted me was the white text on a black background and the unusual language, which inspired the work. It is this book which has inspired the name of the blog and the work I am making now. Although on  completion I was unsure how to take it further; I found when I returned to it that by making photocopy reproductions I could play with scale, enlarging details and combining images together. 

The text is used both in and out of context, fragmented and combined with new images. It has provided a lifeblood to my work and the use of text has become a constant from many other sources.

Pages from my Altered Books

Where and Which Way

The History of Toys

 

The Complete Book of Handicrafts

 

These collages produced in the altered books provide the starting point for the subsequent work, either as a whole or in fragments. As the work is processed through photocopying, printing and image transfer techniques so the fragments gain new identities

(For some reason the titles are refusing to play ball - not sure why)