Next Book Fair - PBFA Novotel

I'll be showing my new book 'Hunting the Wren' ,and whatever else space permits (and I have finished), at the Novotel Book Fair in Hammersmith on June 8th and 9th.
Opening times are
Friday June 8th 2pm - 7pm and Saturday June 9th 10am4pm.
This Book Fair is part of the big Olympia Book Fair and there will be shuttle buses going to and from the 2 sites; the full address is
Novotel London West, 1 Shortlands, Hammersmith, London W6

if you need a map or further details, go the website
www.pbfalondonbookfair.co.uk
follow the links for Private Press Fair and you can also see who else is exhibiting and follow links to look at examples of their work.
The rest of the fair will be full of very tempting second hand books, so allow plenty of time, and come and see us first! This Fair is our way of trying to show a wider audience that contemporary makers are still making beautiful books now and they should be brave and snap up the collectables of tomorrow now, and see how times and methods change and adapt in exciting new ways; plus you can talk to us - we are still alive.

RESURGENCE

This image was printed on Peter Abbs poetry page in the magazine Resurgence this month; it is part of a series I began 3 or 4 years ago now, images for 'Perceval', a companion volume to my first Artists Book 'Gawain' finished in 1997. These images are twice the size - it would be lovely to do a large book this size ( about 32" X 22" ) but slightly impractical - I just got very excited cutting away at ideas on 4'X2' sheets of plywood.
This image is of Perceval in the forest with the swan he has just shot in his ignorance; the blood drops onto a nest of vipers.

These are two bad girls in the forest, a reference to Wagners flower maidens in the second act of his opera.

Here are some woodpeckers in faintly sinister consultation.

And here is a Grail-bearing Maiden, together with a knight-setting-out taken from a famous illuminated MSS.

I think I finished about 7 images in all and exhibited them alongside other woodcuts in the Star Gallery; then got side tracked by other books and the realisation that I was getting severely allergic to the formaldehyde in the glue in the plywood ( I am now trying some new friendly Japanese plywood but it is not nearly as nice as my rough old stuff...and doesn't come in hugely big sheets...).

I hope to get back to re-forging all this into a Book next year - a big project, may take a little time! but I am looking forward to it.

At present..... back to something to celebrate Blake's 250th, and the Falcon Bride.

BABE

BABE at Bristol was a wonderful event and all who organised it should be congratulated. It couldn't have been a more beautiful weekend weatherwise, so we were glad we were in the sunny room at the top with a good view of the Harbour and everyone enjoying the sun. There were constant streams of people with interesting comments; many were studying printmaking or bookarts from various colleges around, but also collecters and enthusiasts of all kinds; as I had hoped, new friends and old.