Wonderland exhibition and Artist Book Fair

Saturday morning was the start of the East London Printmakers exhibition Wonderland, at The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green info here. Katja and Jean and other artists I knew from our group shows had work in it and it is an impressive exhibition. Nicola Green and Zairo Zaldua had an installation called My Childhood Faith, incorporating faded old family photographs and boxes, giving a sense of a private world of childhood and beyond. One of Nicola's relatives was there and pointed out some of the people she knew from the old photos.
Kim Jenkins had a piece called Real Boy illustrating the story of Pinocchio, I enjoyed the whimsical feel and the sense that Pinocchio could be a real boy.
Richard Robert's silksceen the phrase," And if they haven't died,then they still live today" stayed with me as a thought.

Other work that caught my eye on this first viewing included Janet Patterson's installation "Jack and the Beanstalk" A tower of boxes printed with the beanstalk, the boxes containing the secrets of the story. And Jean Gibbon's "Storm on Lake Superior" woodcuts with a lovely sense of colour and depth.



It was very busy at the opening, dress up clothes provided for the children and coffee, tea and biscuits for the adults. I will definitely go back again for a closer look. The exhibition runs until the 10th January and there are workshops and events associated with it.

Later I went down to the Whitechapel gallery for the London Artists books Fair. I hadn't managed to get to the Whitechapel since it's redevelopment, so it was interesting to see the extended space. I had thought there may be some art work on show as well as the book fair, but there wasn't as far as I could see.
The book fair was worth the visit, even though there were quite a few mainstream publishers showing books, there were also a good number of individual book artists there too. My tutor at the Mary Ward Centre, Ciara Healy had a stand with some lovely books info here
Anne Rook, who I also met at Ciara's class was there too using her quirky apple images that I really like. Anne's site hereUpstairs were some books that moved into sculptural forms, including work by Richard Long and Anish Kapoor's wound.