School of Art, Media and Design, UWE Bristol:
9th April - 18th May 2003
Tracey Bush
The Museum of Pelican Stairs
Fathom Five Books
Tracey Bush has created a series of artist's books, drawings, and prints based on charts of the River Thames and it's estuary. Embossed, concertina page river charts unfold the history of London's rivers.
Included in the exhibition are books made from 1994 to the present. The Lost Rivers of London and London's Lost Rivers in two versions of an artist's book, which investigated the buried streams of London, the second version contains text collected from maps in the British Library and Guildhall Library. Printed upon the ICE, on the River Thames, includes notable dates when the Thames froze over, researched at the Meteorological Library, Bracknell.
Recent projects have investigated the river environment and public access to it:
The Thames pH Book is a multiple of tiny litmus paper books, which are dipped, page-by-page in river water. The water was collected from sites along the Thames with the help of the Environment Agency. The river journey is encapsulated by a list of locations, combined with the physical traces of river water. Included in the exhibition is the field-testing apparatus for the pH project. (18 bottles of Thames water from testing sites, pipettes)
River Stairs the most recent artist's book, was launched at the 2002 London Artists' Book Fair. This project is a photographic exploration of river stairs in Docklands and the City. The pages are printed from Flexo plates at the UWE, Bristol. The densely inked images on soft Korean paper evoke the unease of these liminal places.
The Museum of Pelican Stairs exhibited at the Library, UWE, is a collection of artefacts collected on the Thames foreshore. These objects are part of a new book in progress, which will include drawings of the objects and text.
Tracey Bush gives regular demonstrations of Making Artists' Books at the British Library, London. The next book in the series, 'Subterraneans', will be launched at the Bookartbookshop, Hoxton, London, on the 28th November 2003.
For more information on this, or any of the Artists Book Events at CFPR, please contact:
Research Associate for Artists' Books
Centre for Fine Print Research UWE, Bristol
Faculty of Art, Media and Design
Kennel Lodge Road
Bristol
BS3 2JT
UK
Tel: +44 (0)117 344 4747
Fax: +44 (0)117 344 4824
Sarah.Bodman@uwe.ac.uk
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