“To make work you have to be making work” but what happens if you struggle with the physical demands of making or showing work?

So in spring 2023 standing by a table showing Best Books by Bernard & Anwyl at Leeds Pages Artist’s Book Fair I thought, “why am I doing this?”. In February we had sold lots of work at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket event. In 2022 after lockdown things had started to get going again, we had been to Malmö Artist’s Book Biennial and Turn The Page in Norwich, but here I was yet again in a ridiculous amount of pain asking myself “why”.

I love making artists’ books. I love showing artists’ books at bookfairs. I love interacting with visitors, even students who want to take loads of photos of the work, they make me happy.

I like the way that artists’ books and bookfairs subvert the art market without the reverence of the gallery space. I like the way that artists’ books are presented as a ‘serving suggestion’, where the viewer can handle the work and engage how they will. Scrutinising the structure or the detail of the making, opening at random or actually working their way through the book. I especially like it when they get the work and smile. Sales are a bonus but are not the primary purpose.

I have been amazingly fortunate to work with Guy Begbie on a BA and Sarah Bodman during an MA. Showing artists’ books around the country since 2005 and since 2014 together with Anwyl Cooper Willis with Best Books plus getting motivation from meetings with Stroud Artists Books. However, standing by that table in Leeds I realised things had to change.

Since August 1976 my life has been a compromise between ability and what capacity I have for delivery. Making artists’ books is ideal because the task can be sliced and paced over time. You do not need to spend the day in a workshop. It is not like screen printing when after you have finished you cannot go home and rest because you still have to clean every surface you have been near and make sure everything is useable for the next person. Artists’ books are well behaved. They can be left part way through a task, and they are still where you left them some days later; so long as you have the wherewithal to maintain focus on a project over an extended period of time. But bookfairs are gruelling events, however successful in terms of interest, positive feedback and sales. So it is time to call a halt as I did to teaching in 1994 and psychology casework in 2010.

After donating my back catalogue to Bower Ashton Library’s Special Collections here at UWE, I am delighted to be able to exhibit a selection of my work. Contemporary art in book form. One-off, unique, handmade sculptural pieces; or online printed limited editions. Some with intentional humour used to ask serious questions. Often exploring the mundane but with a certain irreverence. Bernard Fairhurst, 2024.

To view more works by Bernard Fairhurst, visit the website Best Books by Bernard and Anwyl. You can also follow Bernard on Instagram.

This exhibition is open to the public Monday – Friday 9am-5pm. No booking needed. The library is on the first floor of B block. Public parking on meters on main road or at Ashton Court.

For more information on Bower Ashton Library, visitor access and campus map, see the library website. You can also follow the library’s Instagram feed.

UWE Bristol, City Campus at Bower Ashton, Kennel Lodge Road, Bristol BS3 2JT.