Lockdown 2020: A Fable - new artist's book

Lockdown 2020: A Fable was created as a response to the unfolding Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that millions of people around the world went through in the spring of 2020.

It depicts twelve pencilled illustrations of life in lockdown and twelve corresponding illustrations of a variety of animals in cages and crates.  The book is made up of multiple spines, which allows the pages to be flipped easily from hand to hand.

In the early days of the first lockdown, I did a little research into the likely origins of the coronavirus and found myself looking through articles and videos full of images of animals in wet markets. 

The thought crossed my mind that there was a kind of grim irony to this catastrophe: if it was true that this new virus had originated from an ill animal, confined in its small cage indefinitely with no freedom, then wasn't there a kind of poetic justice that we were now the species confined to our homes indefinitely, with no freedom and an uncertain fate?

The tables had turned, and our treatment and exploitation of nature and its wildlife had come back to harm us.

Two limited edition versions and one unlimited edition paperback booklet have been created, all of them featuring the same pencilled illustrations. 

 

Lockdown 2020: A Fable Original Size (left) and Miniature (right)

 

Lockdown 2020: A Fable - unlimited edition

For me this artwork will always be about the unprecedented events of Spring 2020 and how, to some extent, this disaster was quite possibly a product of our own making.  It’s my hope that people can view this artwork and take from it whatever message or meaning they choose.

Some may interpret the artwork as being an example of karma, or perhaps see the juxtaposition of scenes from lockdown and caged animals as a metaphor.

Others may see something entirely different. 

Writing this now in 2024, there is still no universal consensus as to where and how the virus originated. It’s possible we may never find out. But perhaps in time and with more evidence, we will know for definite what happened that caused this worldwide human disaster and will learn how best to avert another one. 

Copies of the books are available in my online shop at
https://joannarobsonillustration.bigcartel.com/

 

A long work in progress:

This book took quite a while to design and illustrate and was held up frequently by things along the way.  I'm pleased with the final look and feel of the book, even though it took over four years to finish!

Below are some milestones that it passed along the way as it neared completion. 

(More behind-the-scenes pictures and footage from this project are available at https://www.instagram.com/p/DDPMES3IWuP/)

 

New book art: work in progress

Sometimes new work can take a very long time and that's certainly been the case with this project... 

The first book in a new edition of artist's books has finally been put together. Each one will be made up of multiple pencil illustrations, including the prints you see here on my desk. This one has been a long time in the pipeline, but it's nearly there! 

As always, photos of the final artwork will be shared here when finished. 

If you wish to be among the first to see new work from me then you can subscribe to my mailing list.  I don't do mail-outs very often, but as a subscriber you will get to see finished work first and hear about any events or projects I'm involved in. 

To subscribe, visit
https://joannarobson.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e89fc5b3e135c7a4021010835&id=4b3010f94b

But Is It A Book? A recent exhibition at the University of Chicago

The University of Chicago hosted a fantastic looking exhibition earlier this year called 'But Is It A Book?' with a selection of examples of many types of book forms from their collection:

"If you think you know all the attributes that make a book a book, turn back to the gallery door and conclude your visit to this exhibition.

If you think there might be more to the seemingly familiar and ultimately knowable book—one of the most innovative and adaptable technologies for making and sharing meaning devised by humankind—then take a moment to browse and consider the many wonderful, sometimes contradictory, and occasionally confounding aspects of the book.

But Is It a Book? is a choosable-path exhibition that invites inquiry into the nature of material text, considering in turn the attributes that signal “bookness”—format, shape, binding, pages, and text. You will see examples covering the long arc of book history and book technology, from a clay tablet made in the 3rd century BCE to audio- and e-books manifesting themselves materially the instant you press “play.” But is a clay tablet or an e-book really a book?"

(from exhibition text at https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/but-is-it-a-book/)

Two pieces of my book art - Nylmah and Vasilisa and the Witch's Fire - were featured in the exhibition, curated by Elizabeth Frengel, the university's curator of rare books:

The exhibition was given coverage in both the University of Chicago news' website and in the Chicago Tribune -

https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-university-of-chicago-is-it-a-book-exhibition-20230202-cnqnoivqczcvzmjhbzzg5e5vge-story.html

https://news.uchicago.edu/story/what-makes-book-book

All photos by The University of Chicago Library

 

I was delighted to have two of my artists books included within the exhibition, and especially Nylmah and Vasilisa. Like many of the books I make, they're both designed as concertina books, but each ones takes on a new form and structure when fully opened.

But is it a Book? ran from 3rd January until 28th April 2023 and was on display at the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center at the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago.

Full information on the exhibition can be found at https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/but-is-it-a-book/

The Fruitmarket Gallery Presents: Artists' Bookmarket 2023

Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th February 2023
Open 10:00 - 1800 on Saturday and 10:00 - 17:00 Sunday
Free Entry

Next weekend, Edinburgh's Fruitmarket Gallery will hold this year's Artists' Bookmarket for another two days of workshops, talks and the opportunity to see and buy work from exhibiting artists. 

The fair will be open from 10 til 6pm Saturday and 10 til 5pm on Sunday, with free entry on both days.

I'll be exhibiting with much of the work pictured below, alongside many other artists and small publishers.  A full list of the talks and workshops happening over the weekend can be found at https://www.fruitmarket.co.uk/artists-bookmarket/

Hopefully see some of you there next weekend!

Tam O'Shanter: limited edition artists book

A limited edition of my Tam O'Shanter wordless lasercut books has been created and will be available to purchase online from Sunday July 17th 2022 at 5pm.  There are just fifty copies available in this edition.

Scroll down for photos and more information!

 

 

 

Each copy comes with a booklet of Robert Burns' poem in the original Scots alongside a (brilliant) translation of it into English verse by poet Jim Smith:  

 

 

 

Robert Burns' epic poem Tam O'Shanter is re-told in a wordless paper-cut leporello, which follows the misadventures of a farmer on his way home from the pub and a chance encounter with a coven of witches and warlocks on the way home...

 

 

 

 

Although the lasercut area of this version has the exact same dimensions as the non-editioned version created in November 2021, this version has been instead bound with cloth-bound hardback covers.  Each copy comes inside of a protective display box and with a certificate of authenticity. 
 

 

I'm really pleased with the way that this book has come out and I'm especially happy that Jim Smith allowed me to use his English translation of Tam O' Shanter - it was my favourite translation of the poem.

If you or anyone else would be interested in purchasing one, then copies will be available in my online shop from 5pm on Sunday 17th July 2022 at https://joannarobsonillustration.bigcartel.com/

Do feel free to get in touch with me through the contact form on the shop website if you've any questions or comments about the work!

Update: A Knavish Lad at the National Building Museum

This month the Playhouse went live at the National Building Museum (see previous post from June 2022).  Scroll down for images of the installation and their newly installed stage for performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream throughout July and August 2022!

All photography by Elman Studio. Courtesy National  Building Museum.

All photography by Elman Studio. Courtesy National  Building Museum.

I'm delighted with the way the artwork looks within the installation and cannot quite believe that those etched illustrations I created are now several feet high!  It's lovely to see some of the pictures coming through on social media too and I hope visitors to the NBM enjoy looking at the artwork.

I must give thanks here to the Imaging Services at the National Library of Scotland for their digitisation of the etched illustrations in A Knavish Lad. They took my etchings - which were a mere 15cm high - and created files of them with a resolution high enough that they could be reproduced at the size you see here in these photos. 

There is little chance I'd ever have been able to get such a high resolution of those etchings with my own scanner and / or camera, so a big thanks is owed to them for their help here.

The Playhouse is on until Sunday 28th August 2022 at the National Building Museum, Washington D.C.  Further information is available at https://www.nbm.org/national-building-museum-and-folder-shakespeare-library-bring-the-wonders-of-shakespeare-to-the-great-hall/