Books

A lot of my work, in various media, is around Spurn – you can find it on this page.

The Northern Lights

This small concertina book was made to celebrate the first birthday of my beautiful, youngest granddaughter, Aurora. On the night she was born in 2022 the Aurora Borealis went wild, as if announcing her arrival. Images of the sky are overlaid with an old Scottish poem by Violet Jacob.

Of course I’m not

This concertina book accompanied my stitchings of the same name in the Prism “Warped” show in April/May 2023. Drypoint etchings on beautiful Zerkall paper.

Miniature books

I did a lovely short course in the autumn with Royston Haward at CityLit making miniature books. Here are some of my examples:

Life drawing sketch books

Part of my planning for post-op recovery in the early part of 2022 was to make books. I had culled my life drawing portfolios (three or four huge stores of never-to-be-looked at images, so I cut them up, made them into signatures, and have been binding them into books. My challenge was to try a different binding for each book. It was a lot of fun; here are some examples:

Japanese thread book – I made two books – this one, and the smaller one below.

Spurn Lines I

Mixed media book with various papers, prints, stitch, cottons and silk, image transfer. Printed fabric cover from original photographs. Stab binding. 28.5 x 15 x 1.2 cm closed.

  • Spurn Lines I. Mixed media stab binding book with various papers, prints, stitch, cottons and silk
  • Spurn Lines I: front page
  • Spurn Lines I: inside pages
  • Spurn Lines I: inside pages
  • Spurn Lines I: back cover

Spurn, flotsam

8 x 22 x 3 cm closed

Flag book with machine stitched paper, acrylic, oak gall ink and bound with book cloth

Spurn Scroll, 50 x 25 x 10 cm

Various fabrics joined together, paint, dye, machine and hand stitching, image transfer. The scroll is wound on two spindles so the central image can be changed, and is held on a stand.

  • Spurn scroll, winds on two spindles and supported on wooden base
  • detail

Robert Cross (book)

15.3 x 12.2 x .9 cm

Drum leaf bound book with double-sided inserts printed on silk, book cloth covered board covers embossed with Spurn lighthouse outline. The book relates information about Robert Cross, coxswain of the Humber lifeboat

The Brig Emma

Closed: 15 x 13.5 x 1.5 cm. Rusted, painted and dyed fabrics, including recycled maritime flag and net curtains. Hand stitching with unsteamed thread. Mixed media images and marquetry veneers. Gold foil. 18th century button. Image transfer.
This small book tells the story of the Brig Emma and its last voyage. I was able to access original newspaper reports and admiralty records through contact with archivists and the great-granddaughter of Emma’s captain. The bookmark is a copy of Capt Barrett’s mourning card.

Mind the Gap

I have spent some three or four years taking photographs on the tube – of men taking more than their fair share of space at the expense, frequently, of their female neighbours. The book comprises 20 pages and front and back covers in a concertina form. The men’s identities have been hidden, and the images have cryptic comments beneath them. An edition of 30.

I was absolutely thrilled when this book was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, especially following the shortlisting of Spurn last year. Woop woop!

People Along the Sand: a piano hinge book, printed on Japanese washi paper; cartridge spine with map of Spurn Head and names of some of the people featured in the book. It shows the some of the people who once lived on Spurn, and tells a little of their lives.

Street S**t is a double-sided concertina book of etchings printed on either Fabriano or Somerset paper. Edition of five. The images come from a short journey of two parts: walking from CityLit to Holborn Station and from Dollis Hill Station to my home. I collected detritus en route and started to make comparisons – for example laughing gas capsules (H) and children’s dummies (DH); a used condom (H) and a burst balloon (DH). The tube roundels signal the start of progress; if you begin here and have the book, concertina-like, going away from you, the visible pages show objects from that station’s journey – view from the opposite end to see the other journey. Facing pages show paired objects from the respective journeys.

  • Street S**t

Spurn

This textile book based on the people and history of Spurn, a spit of land at the mouth of the River Humber, was shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2020. Joy!

Spurn; a textile book, mixed media and stitch. Full description is here
Journey of a tumour; cyanotye, 1/5. Small images made with my daughter’s radiotherapy shell
Malevolent Growth: My daughter and I deal with medical problems by looking at them from every angle possible. At the prospect of brain surgery (for her), I worked on a small book, looking at how she might have been treated had she lived in a different age. The surgery was successful, and, following radiotherapy and IVF treatment, she had a son, Alfie. The blank page is for me to add a medieval picture of him!
front
reverse
Family circle: Very soon after my mother died, the family started to tell me secrets. An aunt had kept press cuttings going back to the war, and my cousin kindly let me have access. Fascinating!
Allotment; mixed media, hand and machine stitch, collage and applique, print, findings. The path shows the journey through our allotment, going through the various beds, showing the old fox who visits us, the robin who sits on the spade, the train at the bottom, whose driver often waves, and my husband changing his boots at the end of the day
.
Si tu me olvidas (5 x 10 x 3cm). A favourite Pablo Neruda poem runs through the pages.
Architectural cutout with cover
Cut and fold
Cutouts: a couple of cutout books
Small flag book with band
Book cover and wallet
Inside
From the Tateb: A very strange journey with CityLit classmates, Anne-Marie and Claire, from Tate Britain to the Book Publishers’ Fair
  • Outside
  • Spine
  • Spurn sketches
Spurn sketchbook; piano hinge sketchbook with heavy watercolour pages. Spines collaged with navigation chart of area. 14.5 x 9.3 x 2.1 cm
Stitching: narrow book with monoprinted pockets and inserts from old sewing book.
Work notebook for son; monoprinted paper cover
Work notebook for husband. Screen printed fabric
Photograph/autograph album; bought paper for cover album
Notebooks Three books made for family
Box A construction which folds into itself
Folding Three folded books; cartridge paper, recycled painting and monoprints
title page
A wife: star book with three layers. I made this for my husband when I was very, very cross. He cleverly refused to read it, just admired it from a distance. A good ploy!
Label book Each label has an image which fits into a pocket. The cover wraps around the book and slips into the cover to fasten.
A small bookmark made for a friend – a keen reader
and member of several book clubs; she can write
notes on the pages of the book.
Hand printed cover, wrapping paper.
Small selection of books made with monoprinted paper
Tall flag book
Remains; a small pocket book with cover and wallet.
Monoprinted with lace. Pockets filled with prints and lace.
Spurn tunnel book: photographs, board and paper, silk thread. 24.5 x 10 x 1.5 cm
Westminster rowers at Black Rod’s Steps:Tunnel book with closing cover. Photocopy of the boys of Westminster School landing their boat at Black Rod’s Steps, an annual tradition