Sitting Room
Until July 15 2006
Manchester Craft and Design Centre is hotsting an exciting
and unusual exhibition dedicated to the art of sitting and
reading. The setting is a carefully re-created Sitting Room
complete
with comfortable armchairs, standard lamp, wallpaper, coffee table
and
gramophone, inviting visitors to the centre to peruse the
unique
display of artists' books (that is to say, books that are made
by
artists).
Within this familiar domestic scene, emphasis is placed upon
the
engagement between the book and the reader. Visitors are encouraged
to
choose an artist’s book from the bookcase, make themselves at
home in
the Sitting Room and enjoy this rare opportunity to handle and
interact
with the limited edition artist-made book works.
Curators Tom Sowden and Lucy May Schofield, part of the Righton
Press
Group, based at Manchester Metropolitan University, conceived the
idea
for the show through a frustration of exhibiting their own books
within
the confines of glass cabinets. The primary benefit of using the
book
form as their chosen medium is to allow direct contact between the
work
and the viewer; the experience of reading and interacting is
paramount.
‘Sitting Room’ will allow the books to be read in a
relaxed and cosy
environment.
Artists from the UK and throughout Europe were invited to create
books
based around the theme of ‘Sitting Room’ which were
designed to be handled.
Interpretations include books on domesticity, the act of
sitting,
reading, seated journeys, chair-related ephemera, conversations on
the
settee, ejector seats, superficial housework, family photograph
albums,
observations and viewpoints from the living room and a day in the
life
of a sofa. This eclectic mix of artists' books represents work
by
acclaimed artists of National and International standing,
alongside
locally based artists that form the Righton Press at MMU. It is
a
truly welcoming show.
The Righton Press Group was established by staff members from
the
Faculty of Art and Design at Manchester Metropolitan University
with an
interest in developing the practice of artists' books. Using
the
University’s extensive collection of artists' books and
facilities in
typesetting, printing and bookbinding, the work produced by the
Press
explores the potential of traditional and new technologies to
expand
the possibilities of the book form. Work from the group has
been
exhibited in the Holden Gallery, Manchester, Artists' Book
Fairs in
London and Halifax and a collection of their work is currently on
tour
in the USA, Costa Rica and Mexico. The Righton Press Group will
host
‘The First Manchester Artists' Book Fair’ in
Manchester on 30th
September 2006. For an invitation to the launch of future
exhibitions send your email address to