FULL-TIME DIRECTOR POSITION

Book Works seeks an experienced new Co-Director (Publishing) to lead this dynamic organisation into the next phase of its development together with Rob Hadrill, Co-Director (Studio).

We are looking for an ambitious and talented person to lead and direct on the artistic programme at Book Works, with an overall vision for the organisation and its future direction, developing the programme and championing a case for creative diversity alongside fundraising, income generation and financial strategies.

Book Works is the leading contemporary arts organisation with a unique role as makers and publishers of books. Acting as a national resource for books by artists and those involved in publishing in the arts, Book Works enjoys an international profile as an independent art publisher.

Jane Rolo, Founding Director (Publishing) will be leaving Book Works at the end of September 2019. For the last thirty-five years she has led publishing and commissioning at Book Works, building a singular approach to working with artists. Jane co-founded Book Works with Rob Hadrill in 1984, and her contribution to art and publishing has been to foreground a unique space for the production of artists’ books. The list of artists that Book Works has commissioned and worked with is a history of experimental thinking. Early publications include books by Cornelia Parker, Joseph Kosuth, Tacita Dean, Adrian Piper, Jimmie Durham and Susan Hiller. More recent examples of artists working with Book Works include: Katrina Palmer, Hamja Ahsan, Slavs and Tatars, Clunie Reid and Laure Prouvost. New projects in 2019 include books by Bouchra Khalili, Stephen Sutcliffe, and Sophia Al-Maria.

Jane pioneered an approach to commissioning that gave opportunities to a diverse range of young artists to publish their own work, and also to curators and editors, such as Matthew Higgs, Stefan Kalmár, Sara Wajid, Mark Beasley, Lisa Panting, Stewart Home, Maria Fusco, Nav Haq, Craig Martin, Michael Bracewell, Nina Power and Gerrie van Noord, to create their own series, and for young, emerging and unknown artists and writers to be commissioned through a process of open submission. This legacy continues in 2019 with ‘Contact’, a new series of books commissioned by Hannah Black, and a new issue of The Happy Hypocrite guest-edited by Erica Scourti.