Current curatorial projects involve exploring the connections between objects. Connections can often be obvious, but can just as easily be subtle, oblique and subliminal, and as individuals we will make often very different connections.
space, line, colour
Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol
For April-June 2023 I have curated a selection of artists’ books from the collection at the Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol. The books are chosen in response to my own work responding to Agnes Martin which is also on display at the same time.
The books selected explore space, line, grids, margins, fragments, remnants and colour; these themes intersect with my own interests.
Items on display:
Left Wall Cabinet, Upper shelf L-R Coleman, Les Bookmark; Bicknell, Les Unpicking and Unbinding; Cullen, George Structural Manipulation; LeWitt, Sol Red, Blue, and Yellow
Lower shelf L-R LeWitt, Sol Four basic kinds of lines and colour; LeWitt, Sol Four basic kinds of straight lines; Bouwhuis, Marion Het vedisch vierkant; Tullett, Barrie A Poem to Philip Glass; Cho, Yasushi Blank Column, and, Ornaments; Coleman, Les, & Janssen, John (eds.) Written, drawn and stapled; Bartley, Lara Luna This Way Up, and, Recycled Flipbook; Birchall, Matthew Photograph converted into Morse code; Sheridan, Anna Language of Drawing; Antic-Ham Tokyo Taxi
Middle Cabinet, Upper shelf L-R Carraro, Paolo The Magic Square; Flynn, Danny Unititled (Volume 2), Poole, Kellie Ride
Lower shelf L-R Speed, Emily …and all of the spaces inbetween; Nordenström, Lina Every letter b be come become; Clark, Laurie Jay; Susuki-Bosco, Noriko Traces; Parr, Linda Pushing the Margins; Čiricaitė, Egidija Zydra : In Praise of Sky Blue red; Campbell, Nancy ITOQQIPPOQ; Bodman, Sarah Flowers in Hotel Rooms Volume III
Right Wall Cabinet, Upper shelf L-R Goode, Simon The sun did shine here; Vester, Ane The Change of Color is Likely; Schmaltz, Eric Language in Hues
Lower shelf L-R Harris, Miranda Don’t talk for five minutes, Clark, Thomas A The Hidden Place; Baker, Mavina Atropos; McDowall, John Mirror; Clark, Laurie 100 Buttercups; Schulze-Wollgast, Petra Typewriter Drawings; Eigner, Larry Looks like nothing, the shadow through air; Chhajer, Akanksha Vikash Experience : Memory : Images : Object; Freiles, Antonio Letters to Richard Tuttle
rare books & artists’ books
The first strand began with the The Book of the Sky project. Rare books collector William Zachs and I worked together to create a physical exhibition at his Blackie House library space in Edinburgh that made connections between my own contemporary book works and his collections of books and objects.
In 2023 we plan to begin a new phase of this project by selecting a group of artist book makers, and taking one book by each of them and matching it to a book from his collection. We hope to eventually exhibit this evolving group of works, and to see how the connections build up as each pairing is made.
respond project:
artists’ book to artists’ book, curator to curator
The second strand of this project is a collaboration with artists’ book collector Maria White.
During the lockdown, we began a two-person response email exchange that is still ongoing. We have each responded to the other’s choice of bookwork – each following our own individual sense of connective spark – creating an ongoing linked ‘book chain’. The activity has proved a lively and rewarding process that has enabled both of us to discover new books, rediscover known titles, to delve into our collections, and to see the works in new ways. The connections can be surprising and enlightening.
For the BABE (Bristol Artists Books Event) 2021 ‘lost weekend’ we organised a ‘respond’ curatorial chain involving a group of twelve artists, curators, collectors and librarians who each responded in turn to an artists’ book, creating a unique chain of responses. One person responding with one book per day, with just 24 hours to make their choice.
Exploring artists’ books is an experience of holding, touching, seeing, thinking. The reader experiences many things, sensory, emotional and intellectual. It was fascinating to see how connections are made, particularly during this time when we cannot meet in person.
/You can follow the daily chain of this curatorial experiment as it happened on Instagram @respondproject which started on 5 April 2021. #BABEartistsbooksRESPOND
For the Online Small Publishers Fair in November/December 2021 we ran the project once more, only this time we posted a single book to @essencepress on Twitter, and encouraged many different responses to that same book – a book cloud or starburst of connections… Follow with the hashtag #SPFbooksRESPOND Read more here