EX LIBRIS

Linocuts, bookplates, Hilary Mantel and a dolphin bin.

I’ll be doing the first signings of my new book Hors Scène at BD NET Bastille in Paris, Thursday 30th January from 5pm till 7pm!

As well as doing drawings in books I’ll be bringing some linocut printed EX LIBRIS bookplates to give away (until they run out).

One of my favourite print-processes is linocut, and a bookplate is a nice excuse to work on a new design. I’m printing it on a fairly makeshift setup, in a bit of a rush, but it’s been nice to spend a couple of evenings with my tools and inks, getting ready for the release of the book and the overwhelm of Angouleme.

Its not quite as neat as I hoped it would be (I slightly blame my cold fingers in an Edinburgh studio), but one of the things I love about linocut is how much it shows the hard work (and care) of making it, within the shapes and marks of the printed image. My new book Hors Scène is (among other things) about making stuff; making models, making art, making plays, and was itself the product of years of sitting under a lamp with my inks, painting it page by page. So the slightly wonky, laboured shapes of the design feel about right (cold fingers and all).

The design takes a similar approach to a bookplate that I made with London Review of Books a few years ago, for a special edition collection of Hilary Mantel’s essays. We suggested the idea of creating a linocut still-life of her desk, which she enthusiastically responded too, not only sharing photos of her real desk but also describing in an amazing email her imaginary desk and the objects that would be cluttering it (including a French sabre, and various objects from Holbein paintings).

I carved the design of her imaginary desk (exactly as she had described) out of 3 lino-plates (for red, green and pale yellow), and took them to my friends Nick Hand and Ellen Bills at The Letterpress Collective in Bristol to print the edition for us (much more professionally than in my own makeshift setup, which you can see in the resulting print).

The darkest (almost black) tone in this image is actually just the red and the green layers overlapping with each other, a nice little trick which requires a lot of care and attention in the mixing of the inks ( to create very strong, but completely transparent colours that will combine in this way).

There’s something that feels slightly cheeky about giving David (the awkward dork at the centre of Hors Scène) the same deluxe treatment as the utter genius that was Hilary Mantel, but I hope that she would have seen the funny side.

Back when my last book Kingdom came out, I also made an EX LIBRIS, with help from Nick and Ellen. This was a simple 2 colour linocut of a dolphin themed bin, and we printed it on one of Nick’s beautiful letterpress presses. Everything about this process is a delight, and even if Nick and Ellen are doing all the work, I’ll find excuses to stick around all day in the studio enjoying the atmosphere, the company and the clunks and hisses of the press.

Incidentally you can see Nick and Ellen as mentors on Bill Bailey’s Master Crafters on Sky arts at the moment!

Anyway, I’l be back in my studio on monday, printing as many bookplates as I can before heading to Paris on Thursday. If you’re in town please come along to pick up Hors Scène and I will give you a print.