Hoarding History

Foyles has been a mainstay of London's bookshop scene for over 100 years. 

Recently, the company announced that their flagship store on the Charing Cross Road would be moving ... next door. 

Despite the small distance involved, the move will take some time - much building work is underway to make the new Foyles fabulous. I was fascinated to see that Foyles has commissioned comic artists to tell the story of the bookshop on the hoarding that keeps developments within the new building from curious passers-by. Here's a selection:

'There could be something in this bookselling lark!'

(John Miers)

Foyles is founded in the Foyle family kitchen (John Miers)

The first store (John Miers)

Foyles moves to its first premises in Cecil Court, 

where they are so busy the police suspect illegal activity

(Stephen Appleby)

Christina Foyle

(Karrie Gransman)

Christina Foyle in Russia

(Karrie Fransman)

Foyles began a series of book clubs, including the Catholic Book Club,

 to which the Pope belonged (under a pseudonym)

(Bryan Talbot)

Literary Luncheons

(Woodrow Phoenix)

Thefts from Foyles were rampant

(Warren Pleece)

Richard Burton vs Transport for London 

(Warren Pleece)

The old Foyles payment system

(Oliver East)

The hoardings are picking up graffiti as the days pass but you can see the full series in their original condition here.

Susan Richardson - Writing in the Language of Ice

A new feature in my Arctic Arts blog for the Huffington Post examines the work of Welsh poet Susan Richardson, who has retraced the footsteps of the tenth-century Icelandic traveller Gudrid across the Arctic. Susan's dedication to writing on environmental themes and the considered way she charts the boundaries between exploration and exploitation has been a great inspiration to me. You can read my interview with her here.

Bristol Artists Book Event

BABE, Britain’s most popular book arts event, is back at Arnolfini. As well as the opportunity to see new publications by book artists from around the world, lots of exciting events are planned.

Simon Goode (Founder of LCBA) and I will be be holding surgeries for book artists in the Arnolfini Reading Room. These are an opportunity for artists to discuss and receive advice on any aspect of a book related project be it conceptual, technical or otherwise. Free, but booking essential. More details here.

Ice Night, ONCA Gallery, Brighton

New Book - Tikilluarit

I’m excited to announce a new book from Z’roah Press in New York. Tikilluarit sees me working once again with Roni Gross and Peter Schell, the team that created The Night Hunter.

A sonnet from my Greenlandic series, originally published in Modern Poetry in Translation as ‘The Hunter Teaches Me To Speak’, has been recast by Gross and Schell in a new, experimental setting.

Tikilluarit was created for An Inventory Of Al-Mutanabbi Street. This project, ‘both a lament and a commemoration of the singular power of words’, is an international response to the explosion of a car bomb in Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic centre of bookselling in Baghdad and the heart and soul of the literary and intellectual community, in March 2007.

There’s more information on Tikilluarit here, and I will post details of events and exhibitions in the coming months.

I also recommend browsing the online portfolio of work by Roni Gross.

Typewriters

Typewriters: Print On Demand, curated by Angie and Simon Butler, opens at Gallery Space, Bath School of Art & Design this week. To celebrate the typewriter, here's a brief homage to the machines I have typed on in Denmark, Iceland and the UK this year. 

Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck's Mother's Adler (1960?)

Doverodde, Denmark

The Adler at Ord Kraft Festival, Aalborg, April 2013

(note the Danish keys)

The book that Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck and I typed on the Adler - 

which appears in Typewriters: Print On Demand.

Interlude - an Icelandic pencil sharpener

Underwood, Síldarminjasafn, Siglufjörður, Iceland

Not strictly a typewriter...

 but a World Famous 10 Key Calculator

to compile herring tallies.

There's a short history of these calculators here.

And finally, a typewriter from Angie and Simon Butler's own collection ...

the Olympia Splendid 33 (1968)

Angie and Simon brought the Olympia along to World Book Night Dinner in Oxford last spring,

where it was used to make collaborative bookwork, The Secrets of Metahemeralism 

(pictured below). 

The film of the event even includes a typing soundtrack.

Typewriters: Print On Demand

UDKANT, produced in collaboration with the book artist Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck during the Ord Kraft Festival in Aalborg, Denmark last year, has been selected by curators Angie and Simon Butler for inclusion in the exhibition Typewriter: Print On Demand in the Gallery Space at Bath School of Art & Design, UK. There will be lots of exciting typewriter activities to take part in during the exhibition, which runs from 6th to 22nd February.