New etching edition - Haven

 

 

 Haven is the first finished etching print from a series of images I worked on throughout the pandemic.  The image began as an illustration about social isolation, with the unlikely combination of peace, tranquility and listlessness against a continual backdrop of uncertainty and a sense of being adrift. 

There will be fifty copies in the edition and it will be a varied edition, which means that each printed image will identical, but the colours and tonality may vary slightly from print to print.

A framed copy will be included in this year’s Edinburgh Printmakers’ members show, which opens on Saturday 16th December 2023 and will run until Sunday 17th March 2024.

Copies of Haven are currently available to buy through my online shop now at https://joannarobsonillustration.bigcartel.com

 

 

For updates on new Haven prints being released for sale, please do check my Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/joannakrobson/ 

Thanks for reading!

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/

A Knavish Lad at the National Building Museum, Washington DC

The Great Hall at the National Building Museum

I am delighted to share here that the artwork from my artists book A Knavish Lad (2016) will be featured at the National Building Museum (NBM) in Washington D.C. as part of a collaboration they’re doing this summer with the Folger Shakespeare Library. 

The artwork from the book will form part of an immersive installation for visitors to walk through within the Great Hall at the NBM (pictured above) and will coincide with the staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Playhouse at the NBM in July and August.  

A Knavish Lad (detail)

A Knavish Lad (detail)

 

A Knavish Lad

 

For those within traveling distance of Washington DC, The Playhouse at the NBM can be visited from July 1 – August 28, Thursday – Monday, 11 am – 4 pm.

Folger Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be in performance Tuesdays through Sundays from Tuesday, July 12 through Sunday, August 28, 2022. Tickets to Midsummer are available now at www.folger.edu/theatre or by calling the Folger Box Office, 202-544-7077.

Full information available at https://www.nbm.org/national-building-museum-and-folder-shakespeare-library-bring-the-wonders-of-shakespeare-to-the-great-hall/

Really looking forward to seeing this project come into being next month and to sharing any photos of it both here and on social media.

Watch this space!