Tuesday, 13 December, 7-8.30pm
Online, free (RSVP)
Order Battles, Vol 1. 

To mark the publication of Battles, Vol 1 by Francesco Pedraglio, join us online for an evening of readings and discussion with publishers and readers: Book Works, Juan de la Cosa, MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE, MOIST, and Prototype, and Paul Becker, Jen Calleja, Sharon Kivland, Mira Mattar, Francesco Pedraglio, and Adrian Rifkin.

Francesco Pedraglio’s new book takes battles as a story-telling frame to focus on the small details and absurdities that characterise almost all historical events and end up changing the course of their action. Mixed into the historical stories are personal accounts, trivial and idiosyncratic events that become elevated to the same status as those that affect history. Each story comes with a drawing, a ‘potential stage’ for re-enacting the battle. Each story could be read as a script for a performance. Each performance could restage a battle, or simply a moment of everyday life that takes on, in that moment, the significance of a battle.

For the launch of this book, Pedraglio has produced four short videos for Book Works’ Instagram account and organised, with Book Works, this event to give the opportunity to publishers and writers to explore a shared territory of art, writing, and publishing with those working in similar ways.

Juan de la Cosa/John of the Thing is a collaboration between Tania Pérez Córdova and Francesco Pedraglio, that started as a personal collection of experimental writings in translation. Aside from books, they also produce performances and live events with a focus on storytelling.

MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE is a not-for-profit project by the artist and writer Sharon Kivland. In her role as the editor, she invites authors she considers to be good readers, whom she would like to house in her library or to become her library, inhabited. She agrees with Nabakov that a good reader, an active and creative reader, is a re-reader.

MOIST was founded by Paul Finlay, and exists both to put a dampener on the mainstream ‘literary’ gatekeepers and to juice up the tentative fumblings that occur on the fringes. Art school, state school, and resolutely European, MOIST is always aroused and arousing and not always polite. In Spring 2023 Paul’s daughter Susan, currently published by the press, will join him as co-director.

Prototype, founded in 2019 by Jess Chandler, is a publisher of fiction, poetry, anthologies and interdisciplinary projects. With an emphasis on producing unique and beautiful books, we are committed to championing the work of new voices in free-form contemporary literature.

Wednesday 7 December, 1pm
Online, free (RSVP)

Book Works sees graphic design as crucial to realising artists and writers’ ideas in the final form of the book. While conventionally designers often become involved in the later stages of a book’s production, and with a limited brief, we involve the designer in a collaborative process from the start, with designer, artist and editor working together to create a book that realises the artists’ vision.

For the seventh event in the Graphic Negotiations event series, we are thrilled to be joined by Sara De Bondt, a designer we have worked with on several projects, including books by: Jacob Cartwright and Nick Jordan; Robert Garnett & Andrew Hunt; Rosalind Nashashibi; and Olivia Plender.

Sara is a graphic designer who publishes, researches, and teaches. Her work is typographical and content-driven. She often works with artists, most recently with Benedict Drew, Rosalind Nashashibi, and Jessica Stockholder. Since 2008 she has co-directed the non-profit art and design press Occasional Papers. She has curated several exhibitions, most recently ‘Off the Grid’ at Design Museum Gent (2019).

She lectures at design conferences internationally. Since 2017, she has been a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale. Sara has taught at numerous art schools including Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art, London, and is currently lecturer at KASK School of Arts, Ghent, where she is completing her doctoral studies.

For more information or to reserve a place, visit our Eventbrite.

For the month of December we’re offering a 10% discount on our prints and special editions exclusively via our website.

Take a look at the editions on offer here.

Whether you’re looking for the perfect gift, or to start or grow your own art collection, we have an exciting inventory of limited edition prints and special edition books available. We’re down to the final few of some of these editions, so it could be the last chance to get them.

Produced to help fund our programme of commissions, our prints and editions are created with Book Works Studio and enable us to continue supporting and nurturing new projects by emerging artists, writers and practitioners.

The sale includes works by an array of artists we’ve worked with, including: Phyllis Christopher; Ania Dabrowska; Michael Dean; Tacita Dean; Mark Dion; Lubaina Himid; Stewart Home; Katrina Palmer, Laure Prouvost; Fiona Tan; Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan; and Mark Titchner, among others.

Supporters and Readers Club members already get a 10% discount in our shop, so we are giving our supporters an additional 10%, meaning they can take 20% off special editions in total. To find out how to become a regular supporter or join our Readers Club please find more information here.