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.