artist books

In reaction to COVID-19 restrictions, I escaped lock down as an armchair traveller, with a fascination for historical exploration of the Silk Road and its surrounds. In particular, I focussed on the outsiders, those travellers who pushed the boundaries of societal and cultural expectation to forge their own paths. The Resilient Women Travellers Series Two presents six European travellers to Central Asia between 1860 and 1930:

Isabella Bird (1831-1904)
Mildred Cable (1878-1952)
Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969)
Mary Gaunt (1861-1942)
Ella Maillart (1903-1997)
Janet Wulsin (1894-1963)

The faceless images and use of aged, abandoned books reflect the erosion of our memory of them over time. The text overlay encapsulates their amazing life stories. These women defied convention to live extraordinary lives of intrepid travel.

I am reading a great book about artist books. Called ‘500 Handmade Books – Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form’, it showcases a fantastic array of works. I have made two artist books to date, and am now inspired to create more. My works are below. One is based on a central image of a Blundstone boot. The other is based on an image I loosely refer to as Buddha- it is in fact an image of a guardian statue from the Dunhuang cave complex in China, with the photo taken by Aurel Stein in around 1910. Further images are available via the International Dunhuang Project website.