I am delighted to be showing a selection of poem-objects and postcard poems at UWE Bristol from 29 October to 1 December 2026. The exhibition consists of my 2026 book of postcard poems Colour/Grammar, published by ZimZalla, along with a selection of poem objects published through my micro-micro-press Oo.

A collection of new and redesigned poems published as a box of postcards, Colour/Grammar brings together a large selection of my work in two-dimensional, colour-coded eco-poetry for the first time.

Each box contains two copies of each poem, allowing one set to be gifted to a diverse array of readers in the post. An homage to the aleatoric forms of mid-century modernism, a celebration of poetry as tactile domestic craft, and an exploration of the possibilities of colour as grammar and grammar as colour.

This is a project of the strange, nerve-jangling, ecstatic days of early fatherhood. Something of the colour of that time seeps into the final sequence, which was created entirely at night, with a newborn asleep on my lap.

Oo Press was established in January 2023 as a vehicle for publishing my own poem-objects and for sharing the work of artists and writers I admire who work at the fringes of textual, visual, and sculptural form. Since then the press has published 12 of my own-poem objects along with 10 silkscreened poem prints, and poem-postcards by invited artists and poets: Derek Beaulieu, Imogen Reid, Lila Matsumoto, Jeff Hilson, Ilana Halperin, Joe Devlin, MP Pratheesh, Saskia McCracken, Greg Thomas, Alice Tarbuck, Brandon Logan, Em Filtness, Nicky Melville, Tessa Berring, Kitty Doherty, Félix Delandre, Charlotte Jung, David Bellingham, Vik Shirley, and (forthcoming) Alastair Noble, Kathy Bruce, and Amy Todman.

The current selection of works on display alongside Colour/Grammar is from the poem-objects series. Since its inception, this series has been informed by various strands of ecological art as well as my longer-term interest in concrete and multi-media poetries and various modernist and post-humanist literatures and philosophies. I’d like to make things that create the provisional conditions through which someone – ideally anyone – might feel, temporarily, slightly more at home in the world, and slightly more connected to something that isn’t themselves.

In material terms, the objects have moved through a fairly rapid evolution of forms and approaches: from early small-scale pieces in wood or metal with Letraset additions; through bespoke poem-cards (including a collaboration with the artist and visual poet Mette Norrie) and wax cubes etched with acrylic paint pen; to larger-scale items in laser-cut Jesmonite, and/or Jesmonite objects cast from 3D printed originals. I learned the basics of 3D printing over a series of evening classes at a sixth-form college in East Kilbride during Spring 2025.

Some basic aspects of the framing of the work have remained consistent throughout this period. Aims include: to offer forms of entwined linguistic and para-linguistic encounter that refresh the reader-viewer’s sense of the deep richness of language; to cultivate an awareness of the parameters of human perception as established through intimacy with the non-human world; and to provide a more-than-intellectual sense of succour, warmth, and gentleness that, it is hoped, bears a subtle world-building potential.

For more information visit: Oo Press or ZimZalla.

Visitor information:

This exhibition is open to the public Monday – Friday 9am-5pm. No booking needed. The library is on the first floor of B block.

The nearest car parking for visiting UWE Bower Ashton campus is – public parking meters on main road or at Ashton Court.

For more information on Bower Ashton Library, visitor access and campus map, see the library website.

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