book fairs in paradise

So. February turned out nice – and busy.

In January, Iain Morrison at the Fruitmarket Gallery had asked Barrie if he’d like to exhibit the entire 100 cantos of The Divine Comedy as part of their annual book fair (which of course he did, and it also turned out to be the final push he needed to complete the entire project).

So, he spent a fair amount of time in his studio with very old sheets of Letraset (that’s a whole other story) and then had a frantic week packaging the entire show up ready to go to Edinburgh (in between that teaching lark of course).

This was probably the weekend before the world turned, and, of course, Barrie didn’t get to go and take part in the book fair, or see his own show.

He’d been away in Munich as part of an international poetry festival earlier that week (true) and couldn’t get up to Edinburgh in time. And of course, we’ve all been in lockdown ever since, so he missed out on it all. Doomed to forever be in the boarding lounge of the good ship Zeitgeist.

Caseroom Press collaborators, Alan Mason and Ken Cockburn were there of course (here’s Alan describing the one that got away).

And Barrie was eventually there (rather aptly) in spirit, for the Fruitmarket Gallery’s first online event.

Iain and Barrie spoke about the work and read selections from Dante’s Inferno using the prints as their Virgil-like guide. Guests were invited to grab their own editions or translations of the text and join in, or just log-in on the night and listen as they descended into the circles of hell. Iain might even invite him back to walk up the mountain of Purgatory together.

Initially scheduled to finish at the end of March, the show has far extended it’s run, and is still on, playing to an empty house every day. Barrie takes great pride in thinking that it is one of those rarest of things – an exhibition that has been extended by unpopular demand.

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paradise is divine

One of the things about waiting for ages to get round to posting things on the Caseroom Blog is that events have a way of carrying on regardless.

Which is why we can’t get new photographs of the some of the things that we’re posting. They’re all locked-up in lock-down.

So – here are some (teeny tiny) pictures of the three artists’ books that are The Typographic Dante.

And a close-up of the laser-etched cover to Paradise, the final book of the trilogy.

Long term Caseroom fans will know that Barrie has been working on this project for quite a while – about 31 years. He never was one for a deadline.

Over the last few years, it’s travelled as a work in Progress to Dublin (with the complete set of Inferno prints), London (the complete set of Inferno and Purgatory prints), the NCCD and finally, it’s got to Edinburgh – which was the impetus that Barrie needed to complete all 100 illustrations including the 33 images for Paradise.

The illustrations for Inferno are all created using Letterpress, the illustrations for Purgatory use Typewriters and Paradise uses Letraset. Poor.Old.Tired.Letraset.

 

Once the black and white artwork has been created, the illustrations are printed on the Risographs with Gold ink.

It’s been a long time. Probably could have gone a bit quicker.

a virtuous poem for the day

Now – we realise that we haven’t posted for a while, which we should address over the next few hours.

First off, Brenda and Barrie were (for the second time) ‘Poem of the Day’ at the National Poetry Library.

The image is from Brenda Dermody’s wonderful remixes of Barrie’s original Letterpress prints for Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Not that we’re being a bit slow, but we think this was actually a throwback to September.

More about Brenda can be found here: 100 archive

talking dante in sleaford

Barrie was talking about his Typographic Dante Project in Sleaford yesterday – the show is on its last day today, so rush to the NCCD if you’d still like to catch it – or if you’re in London, selected work from the series is still on display at the Members Lounge in the South Bank Centre.

It’s also the last chance to catch a wonderful exhibition of Artists’ Books from the University of Lincoln – the results of Jantze Holmes’ book arts workshops with various courses from the College of Arts.

 

creatively inspiring

Barrie’s been featured on the Creative Review Website – as part of their Creative Inspiration pages.

The article features some thoughts about the Dante project, teaching at Lincoln, and the duality of progress and loss.

The Typographic Dante is currently on at the National Centre for Design and Craft, and the Southbank Centre.

talking about the design of poetry

The Poetry by Design Symposium at Leeds University made for a fascinating day. Fiona Becket (above) and Emma Trott chaired the panel sessions – and there was a wealth of insight from the speakers, as well as a fascinating selection of work as part of the exhibition.

 

Photo by Bronac Ferran

Barrie was the first speaker of the day and amongst other things, discussed the difficulty of ‘drawing’ fire with a typewriter.

Photo by Emma Trott

Photo by Bronac Ferran

And the particular advantages, and disadvantages of working with commercially ‘obsolete’ technologies(Believe it or not, he says he’d actually ironed that shirt).

The day ended with a series of performances, including the extremely powerful MOTHERBABYHOME by Kimberly Campanello.

In other news – The Typographic Dante was mentioned in an interview with Chris Warren (part of the Poetry Mini Interviews Blog) – he mentioned Barrie in the same breath as Christian Bok and Derek Beaulieu, so praise indeed.

 

poetry by design: a re-appraisal of visual poetics

Barrie has been invited to speak at the Poetry By Design symposium on visual and concrete poetry. Its aim is to stimulate conversations about visual poetics from the immediate pre-computer period while also considering the present moment and the futures of visual poetry.

This event coincides with the exhibition, ‘Poetry By Design’, which is open now until 23rd August in the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds. Curated by Professor Fiona Becket and Dr Emma Trott, the exhibition displays work by poets including Bob Cobbing, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Dom Sylvester Houédard and Kimberly Campanello.

Please get in touch with Emma Trott with any questions: e.j.g.trott@leeds.ac.uk

Poetry By Design: schedule

9:30: Registration and coffee (Sheppard Room)

9:55: Welcome (Fiona Becket) (Education Room)

10:00: Panel I: (Education Room). Barrie Tullett – The Typographic Dante, Iris Colomb – Spill: showing and discussing a project between poetry and design

10:45: Panel II: (Education Room), Bronac Ferran – Hansjörg Mayer’s futura, Fiona Becket – Bob Cobbing, a British Internationalist, Natalie Ferris – The Intelligent Hand: Ana Hatherly and Visualising the Creative Act

12:00: Panel III: (Education Room), Julie Morrissy – “Looking and Listening”: Movement, Space, and Performance in Contemporary Irish Poetry, Florence Impens – The poem and the Archive: Kimberly Campanello’s MOTHERBABYHOME

12:45: Exhibition ‘tour’ and Q&A (Fiona Becket) (Education Room)

2pm: Panel IV: (Education Room), Alice Tarbuck – ‘‘An old frog/ jumps in’: Chinese and Japanese poetry in the work of Thomas A. Clark and Cid Corman’, Emma Trott – Language and Landscape: Simon Armitage’s Stanza Stones

2:45pm: Panel V: (Education Room), Greg Thomas – Poem Machines: Liliane Lijn, John Goodby – Purity, pop-up and performance: Peter Meilleur / Childe Roland and Anglo-Welsh-Quebecois concrete poetry

4pm: Roundtable (Workshop Theatre)

4:30pm: Readings: (Workshop Theatre), Sascha Aurora Akhtar, Vahni Capildeo, Kimberly Campanello

5:30pm: Finish

today is a truly blessed day, i have found a typewriter and cannot leave.

The Typographic Dante exhibition at the NCCD is now open to the public, and it looks absolutely wonderful.

It really is a delight to have the work showcased in its own space at the gallery.

The vitrines contain examples of sketchbooks and development work going back three decades.

As well as various editions of the Divine Comedy and other books inspired by it (apologies for the shadow).

 

A (working) typewriter from Barrie’s collection is part of the show, and it has proven to be very popular with visitors to the gallery (see the example above for the title of this post). Apparently, a few of the younger members of the staff team did need an induction into how to use the machine (‘It’s got margins and tabs… like Word!’).

The show is on in the Roof Gallery (4th floor) until the 13th of October and Barrie will be talking about the project at the Poetry by Design symposium at the University of Leeds, this Thursday (18th July).

intriguing and peculiar

At the Southbank Centre, London, Barrie is currently ‘free and cheap’, and as of today, at the National Centre for Craft & Design, he’s ‘intriguing and peculiar’… and also one of Design Week’s Picks of the Month.

The Typographic Dante show is on at the South Bank Centre (Level 5 Lounge/Members Area) over the Summer and at the NCCD (4th Floor Gallery) until October.

https://nccd.org.uk/exhibitions/the-typographic-dante

As well as the typographic illustrations themselves, the exhibition at the NCCD contains some of the various editions of Dante’s Divine Comedy that Barrie has used as reference material and inspiration, his original sketchbooks from the Inferno and Purgatory series, examples of the materials he uses to create the images with – and – a typewriter should anyone feel the urge to make some art of their own.

national centre for craft and dante

The Typographic Dante exhibition is coming to the National Centre for Craft & Design (NCCD).

Opening on the 6th July, the show runs until the 13th October in the Roof Gallery on the 4th floor.

Work from the series is still on display in the South Bank Centre until September, which meant Barrie had to go through the entire set of prints going back 30 years to choose the set for the NCCD show.

He also took the opportunity to rework some pieces, including one of the earliest of the Purgatory images – Canto VII: The Rule of the Mountain. You can see a detail of the new illustration here, and the original drawing side by side with the new version.

On both occasions, the size of the sun was dictated by the roll of masking tape Barrie happened to have to hand. A new roll back in 2008 and an almost empty (different) roll in 2019.

It was also a chance to look at, reprint and extend the Paradise illustrations.

The work being prepped and sorted.

Ready for hanging.

Barrie would like to say a very big thank you to Lesley Farrell for inviting him to exhibit his work at the NCCD, to the University of Lincoln for their financial support, Bradley Oliver-White for his technical skills, and Jantze for being there to help select, frame and plan the hanging.