This Spring, Crafts Council's new exhibition invites the public to step into the world of esteemed bookbinder and artist Faith Shannon MBE. The free-to-attend event has been curated by Designer Bookbinders - one of the foremost societies devoted to the craft of Contemporary bookbinding.
Faith Shannon (1938 -2018) sought to blur the boundaries between bookbinding and sculpture. The exhibition focuses specifically on the artist’s seminal labour of love - Stone: Ten Bindings, a collection of bindings for ‘Stone’, a book comprising poems by George Mackay Brown and photographs by Gunnie Moberg. Created in and inspired by Faith's home on the West Coast of Scotland, the project took a total of 16 years to complete, with the final collection of works now widely regarded as a masterpiece.
Visitors can experience a rare opportunity to see the original ten bindings of ‘Stone’, accompanied by their poems and photographs. The displays also feature a small workshop room offering a glimpse into the artist’s mind and process of making, alongside some earlier bindings by Faith Shannon from the Crafts Council Collection.