Our Book of the Month for April 2024, with 30% off, isEnd Matter by Katrina Palmer. Get it now for just £6.50.
I will compose a text solely comprised of end matter such as an epilogue, a postscript, an afterword, some addenda, or appendices etc. The shadowy quality of the work’s documentary vestiges will act as a memento to the missing body of the book.
Portland has been shaped and hollowed out over centuries by convicts and quarrymen to provide stone for some of London’s best-known buildings – one million square feet of Portland stone is said to have been quarried for St Paul’s Cathedral alone. Katrina Palmer has undertaken her own excavations into this elemental island, marked by unsettling absences, deviant goings-on and a writer who has gone missing. The book accounts for the loss of Portland’s stone, through the mysterious work of The Loss Adjusters, based on Portland, and responsible for accounting and balancing the material and historical shifts of the island’s being. Reporting these losses in the form of reports, their work overlaps, and becomes disrupted by, the presence of a writer and her production of unreliable narratives set in the tunnels, paths and hollowed out quarries of the island, and presented – like the stone itself – as absences from the narrative; end matter, whose body is missing.
End Matter (2015) was a commission by Artangel and BBC Radio 4, and co-published by Artangel and Book Works, as part of Co-series, no. 9. Edition of 1,500, designed by James Langdon.
Katrina Palmer is also the guest editor for Arrhythmia, our current open call series,.
The first two titles in this series – The Medium by Alice Walter, and The Wastes by Roy Claire Potter – are available to preorder now.
New posters in the ‘What Did You Do…’ series (all proceeds to Medical Aid for Palestinians)
Two new posters have been released, commissioned by Book Works for What did you do… (2024), a poster project to mark 40 years of commissions and book making, made in response to the urgent humanitarian crisis in Gaza overshadowing all our activity. We have invited artists to contribute work that speaks to ideas of solidarity with the oppressed, and liberation for the occupied, for a series of A3 posters.
Gaza is an inkjet print on Hannemuhle Photo Rag 188gsm, in an edition of 50 copies. Book Works would like to thank K2 Screen for their support.
From Iran to Palestine, Liberation in our Lifetime is a Risograph print on Munken Lynx 170gsm in an edition of 100 copies. Book Works would like to thank PageMasters for their help and support with this project.
Falgoush Collective was established in 2019 and is an experimental publishing and curatorial project that explores Iranian narratives of identity and belonging. https://www.falgoush.com/about
All proceeds from this project will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).
Other artists participating in this project include: Hamja Ahsan, Banu Cennetoğlu, Marcus Coates, Jesse Darling, Jeremy Deller, Fehras Publishing Practices with Nancy Naser Al Deen and Sina Ahmadi, Dora García, Deborah-Joyce Holman, Karl Holmqvist, Marianne Keating, Rosalind Nashashibi, Prem Sahib, Tai Shani, Sofia Niazi, Katrina Palmer, Charlie Prodger, Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan, Rosa-Johan Uddoh, and Cecilia Vicuña.
Last year, Book Works commissioned a set of responses to Diana Georgiou’s novel, Other Reflexes. We asked five writers and artists to each respond to one of the book’s chapters, each themed around a particular sense, with a text-based work of some kind.
The first three pieces are now up. Juliet Jacques covers vision, with a photo-essay documenting a trip to Nicosia, Saskia Vogel addresses sound and hearing with a letter exploring desire, attention and listening with reference to Kaija Saariaho, and Rebecca May Johnson reflects on taste and what makes a thing good.
The final two responses by Lisa Luxx and Joelle Taylor will be published this week.
ABOUT US
Book Works is a leading contemporary arts organisation with a unique role as makers and publishers of books.
Established in 1984, we are dedicated to supporting new work by emerging artists. Our projects are initiated by invitation, open submission, and through guest-curated projects. Book Works consists of a publishing and commissioning department; and a studio specialising in binding, box-making and multiples.
STUDIO
The Book Works Studio offers a specialist bespoke service for a range of clients, from artists, designers, galleries, and businesses. We provide binding solutions, develop prototypes and specialise in unique book artworks, boxes, and portfolios. We have an extensive archive, and offer tailored educational events, and bookbinding courses. The Studio generates income from clients and is self-sufficient.
PUBLISHING
Book Works Publishing is dedicated to supporting new work by emerging artists. Our projects are initiated by invitation, open submission, and through guest-curated projects and include publishing, a lecture and seminar programme, exhibitions, the development of an online archive, and artists’ surgeries and workshops.
Our audience is vital to our work. The process of engaging and developing our audience is initiated with our commissioning programme, and driven through all aspects of our activities, particularly our public programme of events, our workshops, artists’ surgeries and education activities, and through our interest in collaborating with other organisations and libraries. Our programme of commissions is diverse, and reflects our commitment not just to work with cultural workers from all backgrounds, but to invest in networks and programmes that engage, and develop and create new artistic voices.
Recent Commissions
Includes new projects with: Ayo Akingbade, Deborah-Joyce Holman, Bouchra Khalili, Amy Ching-Yan Lam, Samia Malik, Harun Morrison, Sofia Niazi, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Jimmy Robert, Prem Sahib, Derica Shields, and Cecilia Vicuña. Our current Open Submission is Arrhythmia, guest edited by Katrina Palmer, and has commissioned new work from Andrew Colarusso, Roy Claire Potter, Kamwangi Njue, and Alice Walter.
SUPPORT US
By supporting Book Works you will help support artists and writers at the emerging stage of their careers through our diverse commissioning programme of open submissions, guest editorships, public events, exhibitions and publications.
CHARITY
Book Works is a registered charity, dedicated to advance education for the benefit of the public in the visual arts, particularly books which may be recognised as works of art in their own right.
TRUSTEES
We have a board of trustees who input their range of diverse expertise and interests into our development:
Teresa Drace-Francis (Chair)
Maria Amidu
Nick Brown
Aliya Gulamani
Gerrie van Noord
