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 exhibition: Katrina Palmer,What’s Already Going On, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, which opens on Thursday 12 January 2023.

Katrina Palmer is an artist and writer, living in London. She is the author of The Dark Object (2010, third edition 2023), The Fabricators Tale (2014) and End Matter (2015), all published by Book Works. She has exhibited extensively, including with an Artangel Open commission (2015), at Henry Moore Institute (2015-16), Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2018), and with Estuary and Waterfronts (2021). She received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists (2014). She is guest editor of Arrhythmia ­­­­­– a new series of publications selected from open call due for publication in 2023-24.

Our Book of the Month for January, with 30% off all month, is Make Everything New – A Project on Communism edited by Grant Watson, Gerrie Van Noord and Gavin Everall (Book Works, 2006).

Communism is routinely defined as defeated and its conquest the subject of regular celebration. Caught in the disappointment and negative connotations of the past, it has become all but unthinkable. Make Everything New – A Project On Communism seeks to rescue the idea of Communism from this trap. Collaborating with artists, writers and collectives, this project has commissioned and collected counter-narratives, abstract and unrealistic ideas, engaged political commentary and satirical work, that presents neither an historical or comprehensive overview nor a requiem for the past. It is a collection of partial and subjective accounts of various creative practices, an experimental platform for ideas and an attempt to see in what ways the communist imagination can be materialised as art.

Contributors include: 16Beaver, Michael Blum, AA Bronson, Maria Eichhorn, Factotum, Dmitry Gutov, Wu Ming, Aleksandra Mir, Sarah Pierce/The Metropolitan Complex, CK Rajan, Raqs Media Collective, Dont Rhine, Martha Rosler, Rob Stone, Alberto Toscano, and Klaus Weber.

Co-published by Book Works and Project Arts Centre, Dublin from an original concept by Grant Watson. It is the first in a series of co-publishing partnerships initiated by Book Works, entitled Fabrications, commissioned and edited by Gerrie van Noord.

Opening: Saturday 14 January, 2–5pm
Printed Matter,  231 11th Avenue, NY
Show open 14 January–26 February 2023
Both free, no booking needed. More info.

A touring exhibition of shortlisted books in the 2022 PhotoBook Awards moves to Printed Matter, New York next week, with an opening reception on Saturday 14 January. The show, which includes the shortlisted Dark Room by Phyllis Christopher, will be on display at Printed Matter in Chelsea until 26 February.

The exhibition has previously been shown in Paris, and after New York will move to the following venues:
Copenhagen Photo Festival, Denmark, June 1-11, 2023
Foto Wien, Vienna, Austria, June 2023
Medium Photo Festival, San Diego, April 2023
The Reference, Seoul, South Korea, June 2023
Lightbox Photo Library, Taipei, Taiwan, August, 2023.