Now in its sixth year, the Artists’ BookMarket runs over two days at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery, with exhibitors showing their book works across the gallery spaces. The special thing about this artists’ book fair is its mix of national and local exhibitors.
It’s the main event in Scotland for artists’ books, where you can meet established national artists such as Helen Douglas of Weproductions, who will be showing new books based on her intimate observations of the natural environment in the Scottish Borders. These include HAIRST (pictured above), a collaboration with the poet Rab Wilson, and Winter * Celestial Mountain (below).
Other regular exhibitors David Faithfull and Jane Hyslop are each well known for their books inspired by Scotland’s natural history. Faithfull has spent many years investigating landscape, particularly that of Mull and Jura in the Scottish Hebrides. His Leviathan series has also to responded Inch Kenneth, the former remote island home of the Mitford sisters, in LEVIATHAN f3: flotsam: Inch Kenneth Investigations (below and bottom)
Hyslop’s books elegantly depict the gentle reclaiming by native flora of former industrial sites around Midlothian. The Gardens | Edinburgh is a beautifully-housed set of folio drawings bound in Scottish linen exploring the history of garden design and the development of the linen industry in Scotland. The accompanying piece, The Gardens I (below), contains a set of objects relating the layout and quiet invasion of weeds in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh.
Alongside these established artists, there will be works on show from the new generation of artists’ book makers coming out of the Scottish art colleges, particularly Edinburgh College of Art where Hyslop and Lucy Roscoe of The Book Tree Press (pictured top) are inspiring emerging talents.
The event will also showcase many interesting and affordable artists’ books from exhibitors from further afield, as well as a programme of free talks. Other local treats on display include Leonard McDermid’s wonderfully quirky books and new publications from Julie Johnstone’s Essence Press.
Artists’ BookMarket, 27-28 February, Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 12-5pm, Fruitmarket Gallery, 45 Market Street, Edinburgh. www.fruitmarket.co.uk
Use the Artists’ Books series tag for more in the series, including Sarah Bodman’s top ten artists’ books of 2015
