We are very happy to have been asked to contribute to Queercircle’s Gathering with Palestine programme this summer, alongside over 15 other organisations and collectives. We’ll be presenting our fundraising poster project, What Did You Do?..(2024) at the programme launch on 26th June, and they’ll remain on display/sale in the library through the summer.

From Queercircle: “Taking an intersectional and systemic approach, we invite our community and partners to join us for a programme of teach-ins, discussions and workshops centering Palestinian voices. Prioritising the social aspect of movement building, each session we’ll convene over food to reflect, exchange and connect to situate Palestine among wider global justice movements. Collectively we’ll build practical transferable knowledge, resources and actions that contribute to supportive, relational  infrastructures; and a future for Palestinians built on liberation and justice.”

More details on the full programme to come soon – sign up to the Queercircle mailing list for updates.

29–30 June 2024
Bower Ashton Campus, Bristol
More info/contact

We’ll be back in Bristol for BABE, Bristol Artist’s Book Event, on 29–30 June.

The first Bristol Artist’s Book Event was organised by Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden in collaboration with Peter Begen and Snoozie Claiden at Arnolfini in 2007. It has since grown into an international event showcasing artists’ books to the public over a Spring weekend every two years. Since its first outing, BABE has established a great reputation as a relaxed and friendly event to meet and talk to book artists about their work and buy works of art.

We’ll have a stall, and will also be doing some free artist’s surgeries at the fair – contact BABE directly for more info!

30 June 2024, 2pm
Cafe Oto
Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL
Free but RSVP

Come and celebrate with Roy Claire Potter and friends on 30 June at Cafe Oto for the London launch of their debut novel, The Wastes (postponed from 2 June)

The launch event will begin with a new reading performance by Roy Claire Potter and Kieron Piercy, whose previous collaborative releases and broadcasts include Conversations with the Anthony Burgess Archive on Sub Rosa, and Three Sweep Between for Glasgow’s art radio station Radiophrenia. This will be followed by a conversation about the themes and production of the novel in the context of artists who write with Daniella Valz Gen, who is the 2024 Writer in Residence at Whitechapel Gallery.

The Wastes is published by Book Works as part of the Arrhythmia series, edited by Katrina Palmer.

Roy Claire Potter has released duo and solo audio works with labels like Cafe OTO’s Otoroku and Takuroku, Sub Rosa, Chocolate Monk, and Fort Evil Fruit, and has worked with a broad range of musicians and sound artists including Park Jiha, Ziúr, Kieron Piercy and Bridget Hayden. With a visual art background in experimental art writing and drawing, Roy tells stories built from fragmented, intense images that depict moving bodies or domestic scenes and architectural settings, often focusing on group dynamics or the aftermath of violent events with a dark, sometimes wilful humour. They publish writing and make exhibitions internationally, and recent collaborations for stage and broadcast have been made possible by BEK, Counterflows, Reduced Listening for BBC Radio 3, and Wysing Art Centre’s Polyphonic music festival with Somerset House.

Based in Leeds, Kieron Piercy produces amateur acousmatics for computer and electronics with releases on Harbinger Sound, Porta, and Chocolate Monk.

Daniella Valz Gen is an artist and writer born in Lima and based in London, who works across installation, text, and live performance. Their work investigates different forms of embodying liminality, and reflects on the negotiation of territories, modes of address, and value systems. They are the 2024 Whitechapel Gallery Writer in Residence and their first collection of poetry Subversive Economies is published by PSS.

Free Palestine by Deborah-Joyce Holman is 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 posters.All proceeds from this project will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

Free Palestine is an inkjet print on Hannemuhle Photo Rag 188gsm, in an edition of 40 copies, plus 5 artist’s proofs. £40 + VAT.

Book Works would like to thank Robin Christian and K2 Screen for their help with this project.

Other artists participating in this project include: Alternative School of Economics, Hamja Ahsan, Banu Cennetoğlu, Marcus Coates, Jesse Darling, Jeremy Deller, Falgoush Collective, Fehras Publishing Practices with Nancy Naser Al Deen and Sina Ahmadi, Dora García, Karl Holmqvist, Marianne Keating, Rosalind Nashashibi, Prem Sahib, Tai Shani, Sofia Niazi, Katrina Palmer, Charlie Prodger, Anne Tallentire, Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan, Rosa-Johan Uddoh, and Cecilia Vicuña.

We are delighted to welcome a new trustee to the Book Works board, Tess Denman-Cleaver.

Tess is Senior Programme Manager (Young People & Communities) at New Writing North. She previously worked as a freelance programmer and artist, as well as producer for the Women Artists of the North East Library and Producer (Artists’ Moving Image) at Tyneside Cinema. As an artist she presented recent work at Turner Contemporary, Baltic and Workplace. Tess was Artistic Director of Tender Buttons theatre company between 2010-2018 and Programmer for The Northern Charter between 2015-2018. She has a PhD in landscape, philosophy and art from Newcastle University and is also a governor for Kelvin Grove Primary School (Gateshead).

Tess joins Teresa Drace-Francis, Maria Amidu, Nick Brown, Aliya Gulamani, and Gerrie Van Noord on the board.

Huge thanks to Claire Malcolm for her time as a Book Works trustee, and we wish her all the best.