Checking out the fine print
Art critic
Peter Wakelin
reviews a new exhibition revealing the creative processes that make artists' books
One thing recent trends in art remind us about is that visual art need not consist of just paintings on the walls of galleries. Conceptual Art installations, videos and public art have made the image speak to us in new ways. But one of the oldest examples of breaking out of the gallery setting is the artist's book. A number of artists are taking a new interest in the artist's book. Among cutting-edge Conceptual artists who have made books are the Artes Mundi nominated Tim Davies, and Carlos Pinatti and Christine Mills in their residency at the 2003 National Eisteddfod. Books are an age-old tool of communication, but they can be vital objects of artistic expression and potent symbols.
Brecknock Museum in Brecon is currently providing a unique opportunity to see in exhibition form the work of one of the leading creators of artists' books in Wales, The Old Stile Press. Based in the Wye Valley, the Press has now worked with dozens of artists on limited-edition, hand-made books, combining text with imagery to create something that is an art object in itself. Nicolas and Frances McDowall have been working with artists for 25 years and their back catalogue and current projects represent a devotion to the artist's book which has produced superb results. Their creations are recognised world-wide, and are in important collections of fine books from New York to Tokyo.
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Wales has played an important role in the private press movement and the art of the book. The historic Gregynog Press was created in Wales in the 1930s, and among other significant makers of artists' books based here have been the Caseg Press and the Red Hen Press. Nicolas and Frances McDowall created the Old Stile Press in London in 1979 but moved to Llandogo, near Tintern just a few years later. They have now created over fifty books altogether.
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The McDowalls are a partnership in the initiation, design and making of the books, but they create further partnerships with individual artists and writers, conceptualising projects together. The artists devise the imagery; Nicolas designs the volumes and prints the book by hand; Frances makes paper that is used in the end-papers, covers, or even for the whole printing. In each case, the Old Stile Press aims to create a book that strikes a stimulating relationship between word and image. Nicolas and Frances are adamant that they are never interested in illustration - the imagery in their books should give readers an opportunity to reflect in new ways on the text and delve deeper into their imaginations. Writers whose work has been re-printed in the rich new form of artists' books, or in some cases published for the first time, have included Ted Hughes, Robin Skelton, Malcolm Parr, Dylan Thomas and Dafydd ap Gwilym.
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The Brecon exhibition focuses on their work with Welsh artists in particular - twelve of whom are featured, ranging from the late John Elwyn and the senior watercolourist Philip Sutton to younger painters such as Sara Philpott and Christopher Nurse. These are all artists known for powerful work in other media - shown alongside the books in the exhibition - from the sculptures of Harry Brockway to the collages of Glenys Cour, the paintings of Keith Bayliss and the videos and puppets of Susan Adams.
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Because the books are hand-printed by letter-press methods on superb papers, they have a depth and texture never to be found in modern commercial publications. The fine bindings add to the feeling of a beautiful object to hold and contemplate. The images are reproduced by the same methods used to make original artist's prints - lino-cuts, woodcuts, engravings, or blocks generated from drawings.
One of the up-coming projects displayed for the first time at the exhibition is the book of the long poem by Vernon Watkins, Taliesin and the Mockers, with images by the highly-respected Swansea artist Glenys Cour, who was a close friend of the poet. Cour has made a series of dynamic collages which intimately complement the poet's own vision. The exhibition also sees the launch of the latest completed project, a book of 26 sensual woodcuts by Robert Macdonald exploring the subject of young love in the early poems of John Donne.
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An example of the originality that goes into creating some of the Press's projects is the recent book by Christopher Nurse which extracts 'the play within the play' from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It tells the story of Pyramus and Thisbe with Nurse's vividly re-created characters. Often, there has been a continuing creative relationship between particular artists and the Press. Clive Hicks-Jenkins has worked on five projects with them over the years, and each time the challenges involved have fed back into his work as a painter. Bert Isaac's portfolio of colour prints and accompanying text formed a manifesto for his continuing explorations of the landscape.
Nicolas McDowall has himself created the imagery for several books. Among his most satisfying is a little volume contemplating a stretch of dry stone wall in the woods above the home of the Press near Tintern. The images are based on photographs of the wall's interlocking stones, abstracted to their bare essentials of jigsaw-puzzle chinks and crevices.
The exhibition is an opportunity to see the many ways in which fine books can be made, and to observe the dialogue between the artists' personal work and their collaborative projects. There are reading-copies of all the volumes produced to date. Visitors can leave behind the gallery setting in their imaginations - by sitting down and losing themselves in a good book.
The Old Stile Press - Working with Artists in Wales can be seen at Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery, Captain's Walk, Brecon, from 18 September to 13 November. Telephone .
The twelve Welsh artists featured in the exhibition are Susan Adams, Keith Bayliss, Harry Brockway, Glenys Cour, Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Bert Isaac, Robert Macdonald, Nicolas McDowall, Christopher Nurse, John Petts, Sara Philpott and Philip Sutton.
Link:
www.oldstilepress.com
