Black Slit by Katrina Palmer (2023) is our Book of the Month, with 30% off all November.

Black Slit documents a process whereby Katrina Palmer learned to throw a knife, using vibrantly painted clay objects as her targets. The setting is a studio/office/classroom/bedsit at night – a multi-purpose space which must be prepared for the action. We see a sofa-bed being made in low light, a knife laid on a table before it flies through the air, and then the focus shifts to the targets themselves. The clay was still wet and unstable when struck by the blade, resulting in unpredictable radical disruptions to the colour and shape of these hand-crafted forms. Alongside filming and editing footage of the knife throwing, Palmer practised drawing lines, to make a series of works on paper which are also reproduced in this book. Responding to the borders, margins and channels of the lined A4 page, Palmer produced curiously visceral but lean forms that are a new element to her work.

Black Slit was developed alongside the 2023 exhibition: Katrina Palmer, ‘What’s Already Going On’, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre.

Palmer is the author of three other books, published by Book Works, and is guest-editor of our current open-call series Arrhythmia. We are delighted to be publishing Palmer’s new book The Touch Report in December 2024 which draws on research done during her 2024 residency at National Gallery, London.