In the late summer of 2022 Fiona Dempster asked if I was interested in a collaboration of Artists’ Books. What a wonderful idea!
See www.paperponderings.blogspot www.fionadempster.com
We had been emailing each other for a few years but we have never met, Fiona living in Australia and myself in England. It was interesting considering titles and protocols via the internet and with someone that you don’t know, all those hand and eye movements when you are face to face and the nuances of language aren’t there to gauge the impact of ideas.
With only a little debate we decided that the title would be ‘The Shape of Things’, we would produce editions of two, one for each of us and to consider different structures of books and to include text. We wanted challenges both intellectual and constructional. The first books would begin to be posted off to each other in January 2023 and then at the beginning of each following month. There was no set number.
We began by sending each other a bundle of our own papers which would be incorporated into the books.
My papers for Fiona, ready to parcel up.
The received papers from Fiona spread out on my table.
The challenge was set!
For my part there followed thinking, research through my notebooks and allowing my mind to wander over ideas.
Does a shape define a thing? Some, rather than many, of my antique textile fragments are of a shape that tells of its past purpose. Lace is long and thin so that it can be used as trimmings, whereas bodices have curved edges for necks and arms. I decided to use these as my design sources and respond to them for my books.
Two plates were made, here the bodice one printed
and here the cut out printing plate of lace.
To me, an important part was forward planning, an overview of the whole, a need to think about the parcel of papers, how to use them, stretch the resources throughout the series of books, consider the properties of each paper, several of which I had not used before.
I just got down to it!
Fiona had suggested that whilst we would be blogging about the project we didn’t want the other to have full knowledge of the book that they were yet to receive, so that we should only provide ‘teasers’ and then on receipt, the full reveal. Brilliant!
For me, there followed many sessions of moving the papers around, trying to work out their properties, I hadn’t worked with any of the papers before, they got shuffled around, placed into sections and constantly rearranged.
My first book evolved from the bodices and lace that I had begun with, it was a way of easing me into the practical part of the collaboration. A printing plate was designed and made inspired by the lace and the way that it was folded.
Choices had to be made for the supporting papers.
Here is almost the last stage of the covers being glued to the print.
And two teasers!
Text and print
Appliqué using Fiona’s braille paper as a printing plate onto some of her fine paper and my painted tissue paper.
It seems to me that it is important to remain true to my ideas and to produce pieces with integrity and not to create work to please the other, but to use the collaboration to extend my practice, to explore different materials and challenges.
Looking forward to book two.
Annwyn Dean 