Last orders!

The Book Works winter sale is now on! Last order date before Christmas is Friday 17 December

Save 50% on all our backlist titles. The sale includes Hamja Ahsan’s bestseller Shy Radicals; Bridget Penney’s Licorice and Hamishi Farah’s Airport Love Theme, and all titles in Stewart Home’s Semina series – including Katrina Palmer’s The Dark Object, Mara Coson’s Aliasing, and Iphgenia Baal’s Merced Es Benz – all available for around a fiver! Delve deep into our online shop to find rare editions and almost-out-of-print bargains. The Book Works winter sale is the place to find the perfect Christmas gift for the artist book-liker in your life.

small white monkeys: On self-expression, Self-help and Shame (2017, Second Edition, 2022)

Sophie Collins

Purchase this title

Available for preorder at the reduced price of £10.00

‘The Engine’ was a poem about another world. Inhabiting this world was a brood of small white monkeys that moved around like injured birds, like furtive healthy birds, like monkeys. …

It took me too long to recognise ‘The Engine’ for what it was – the story of my life until now, or quite recently. It took me longer still to recognise the monkeys for what they were, collectively: my white symbol of shame. – from small white monkeys

small white monkeys is a fragmented essay, including poems and images, on self-expression, self-help and shame. Beginning with the image of the small white monkeys, the text examines the author’s relationship with shame through a series of short studies on, amongst other things, cats, hair as a metonym for the self in poetry and fiction, and perceptions of sexual violence.

Made through research into Glasgow Women’s Library’s Archive Collections and Lending Library, small white monkeys incorporates material from the library’s archives and the work of female creators past and present, including Anna Mendelssohn, Jean Rhys, Selima Hill, Adrian Piper, June Jordan, Denise Riley, Carolee Schneemann, Vahni Capildeo and Veronica Forrest-Thomson.

This second edition of small white monkeys by Sophie Collins includes new poems and a new introduction by Helen Charman.

Join Our Readers Club or Supporters Scheme

Support Book Works

We’ve had a fantastic response to the launch last week of our new Readers Club and Supporters Scheme.

Readers Club

£5 per month / £50 annual

Joining our Readers Club is a perfect way to keep up to date with all our publications at a very special price and also receive a 10% discount on all other book purchases.

Or, why not gift this to a friend for Christmas so they can receive and enjoy new publications by the following artists and writers: Phyllis Christopher, Diana Georgiou, Huw Lemmey, Samia Malik, Harun Morrison, Sofia Niazi, Francesco Pedraglio, Prem Sahib, Derica Shields, Lucy Skaer, Rosa-Johan Uddoh, Isabel Waidner and more. Find out more here.

Become a Supporter

£10 per month / £100 annual

Support emerging artists through our most experimental commissioning platform.

Many of the artists that we have worked with talk about the investment, time, care and nurture they have experienced working with Book Works – particularly artists commissioned through open submission. We want you to become part of that supportive process. With you, we want to build a community of support that can help develop the ambitions of our open submission commissioning platform, to give further opportunities to artists and writers, often at the start of their career. Find out more about becoming a supporter here.

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

Include new projects with: Phyllis Christopher; Francesco Pedraglio; Sarah Tripp; Praneet Soi; Stuart Brisley; Nina Wakeford and Art on the Underground; Erica Scourti; Sophia Al-Maria; Bouchra Khalili; Laure Prouvost; Stephen Sutcliffe; Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan; Contact – a series guest edited by Hannah Black with Hamishi Farah, Momtaza Mehri and Derica Shields; and Interstices, a fiction series edited by Bridget Penney with Harun Morrison, Diana Georgiou and Licorice by Bridget Penney.

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)
Nick Brown
Michael Mack
Claire Malcolm
Gerrie van Noord

Book Works

19 Holywell Row

London EC2A 4JB

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