HERBAL NOTEBOOK SERIES

The potential in the digital image, for improvisation and change is unending, while each laminated surface on which I print an image is made by hand and is inevitably different. The images I make are in a continual state of flux - simply arrested at a certain point in the process. This idea has been the underlying focus for the books I have made. 

Book one was designed as part of a collaborative installation which incorporated visuals, sound and poetry. The poem is within the book, but is also recorded as part of the sound installation.

The book is both part of the installation, but can be read separately. It is an open spine structure with chain stitch. Covers are of encaustic collage while pages vary in materials and therefore translucency. Some pages are entirely of silk, some of layered silk and tissue, some incorporating collaged elements. Each page is waxed to increase translucency. The content is a series of digital images. Interleaved with the images is an epic poem written by Liz Cashdan, who was inspired by the life and work of Elizabeth Blackwell, an 18th century Botanical illustrator and engraver. My own plant drawings and scribbled notes were scanned and used in the image pages. I added colour, as well as illusory textural and spatial elements. An alphabetical structure is used to o rganise the pages.