London Rare Books School
I'm convening some courses this year at the London Rare Books School: in May a one day course on Movable Books at Cambridge University Library, and in June a week long intensive course on the Artists' Book at Senate House in London. Registration for the first is open here.
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Agrippa
As one of the invited speakers at the Bodleian's Agrippa Symposium - all about William Gibson's self-destructing book - in May 2023, I'll be speaking on a panel about cross overs between book history and book arts. Register here.
Folding the Page
At Tate Britain, Simon Morris, Adam Smyth and I hosted an afternoon of talks, discussions and hands-on demonstrations exploring creative uses and unexpected histories of the fold. I chaired a fun Q and A with Erica Baum and Abigail Reynolds. There was a lot of folding and unfolding, before everyone got busy with glue sticks to make their own mini versions of Inscription issue 3.
Folding the Page Exhibition
As part of Inscription's Folding the Page events, from November 2022 to January 2023 we took over part of Chelsea Library, at University of the Arts, to curate an exhibition of artists' books with inventive and folding structures.
The Black Page
In April 2022 I was in conversation with Andrew Spira, curator of Foreshadowed, an exhibition at the Bodleian Library all about books with black pages. We talked about Tristram Shandy, mourning pages and the infinite varieties of the black square.
Holes Exhibition
From October 2021 to January 2022, in conjunction with the launch of Inscription Issue 2, we curated an exhibition at No Show Space in Bethnal Green, London. An installation using video and sound, it showcased some of the rarest and most unusual examples of books with holes.
London Review of Books Podcast
In March 2021 I was interviewed by Thomas Jones for an episode of the LRB podcast entitled 'Into the Ubuverse', about Kenneth Goldsmith's Ubuweb, conceptual writing and unreadable poetry.
The Index: Andres Cesarco and Dennis Duncan in Conversation
As part of my work for the Index of Evidence project at University of Exeter in 2021, I convened and chaired a conversation all about indexes in art, literature and elsewhere, involving the Uruguayan-American artist Andres Cesarco and Dennis Duncan, author of Index, A History of the.
Yale Program in the History of the Book
In 2020-21, the 39 Step Press were invited to participate in Yale's Presence Project, creating a work that would reflect on ideas of presence and absence. Adam Smyth, Dennis Duncan and I gave two talks on our project, which was all about Dickens' unfinished novel Edwin Drood. More about our dismantling and indexing of Dickens here.
Artists Book Now
I hosted an event in the British Library's Artists' Books Now series in 2019, chairing discussion with Sam Winston, Maria Fusco and lots of other interesting artists about the theme of writing. Here's a blogpost I wrote for the BL after the event.
What is a Page?
While at the Beinecke Library as Giamatti Visiting fellow in 2018, I gave an invited to talk to Postgraduates and Yale faculty members about the nature of the page, its oddities, mutations and variants.
Rethinking the Book
I participated in “Rethinking the Book”, a panel discussion with Deidre Lynch, Alex Gillespie, Juliet Fleming and Adam Smyth, at Cambridge Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), Cambridge University.
Fifty Years of A Humument
Tom Phillips' 'treated Victorian Novel' celebrated its fiftieth birthday in 2016 at The Bodleian Library in the company of the artist-author himself, with an evening of talks to mark the launch of the final edition. I gave a talk about as one of the invited speakers, sharing my experience of delving into Phillips' recently deposited archive.
Brian Dettmer roundtable
In 2014 was invited to be part of roundtable discussion with book artist Brian Dettmer at the Victoria & Albert Museum, all about book sculpting and bookworks.
Conference Series
As part of the Birkbeck Material Text Network, I organised a series of conferences and workshops about the book as a physical object, and its unconventional uses and abuses. The posters, designed by Ochi Reyes, are things of beauty. Take a look.
