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'Here, Others'
To be published in early 2023 'Here, Others' was created over a week in June 2022 while artist-in-residence at StreetLife in York, an off-site project of the University of York's Thin Ice Press studio. The starting point for the work is York’s printing history, specifically the story of the Belgian printer Hugo Goes who came to England via employment legislation laid down by royal decree. In 1509/10, Goes printed the first book to be printed in England in York at his Stonegate premises. ‘Here, Others’ uses the well-known phrase “Who Goes There” to explore the story and its continuing relevance. It is both a facile pun and a sad indictment of English society’s suspicion and scepticism.The phrase emerges page-by-page and is followed by a text that interrogates such attitudes.Technically, the effect was created through a process of ‘unmasking’: gradually cutting away the frisket that holds the paper in place during the printing process on the Columbian press.The ‘mask’ in this case was a map of the shipping forecast areas that surround the UK and Ireland. For the installation of the book in the project space, I wrote the following: “During my week in York two events occurred, one at the macro level and one at the micro. On the first day, the aeroplane that the UK government had chartered to move people who had legitimately asked this country for asylum to Rwanda was forced to remain grounded. On the third day I met F., a refugee from Eritrea who I had worked with for many years in Manchester, on the train journey to York.We had half an hour to catch up, talk about our families and discuss the continuing lack of both safe routes to the UK and a credible policy commitment to addressing the issue.The fact that we continue to struggle with this question 500 years after Hugo Goes was allowed to come to this country has, I believe, a powerful resonance.” One final note: the title ‘Here, Others’, was arrived at by processing the phrase “Who Goes There” through multiple languages via free online translation software. Edition: 10 Size: 33cm x 42cm (closed) Pages: 12 Stock: 135gsm Zerkall Typefaces: Univers 55 and assorted wood type orphans Sewn book: 4mm spine, 5-hole pamphlet stitch, bookcloth-covered 2mm board |
Book images
Work-in-progress images
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