Sarah Bodman, Bristol, UK
Dinner and a Rose, 2021
Sarah Bodman (image) and Nancy Campell (text) have created this artist’s book in homage to the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the last Ripley novel’s publication. Digital print with silver detail on Nautilus Classic 135 gsm recycled paper.
Edition 500, 210 x 148mm.
£10 (plus P&P and insurance)
Flowers In Hotel Rooms Volume V, 2016
A limited edition artist’s book inspired by the 'Angel of Bremen’, Gesche Gottfried, considered a model citizen by the public but who actually murdered fifteen people by lacing their food with arsenic.
Produced to resemble the type of pamphlet publication / recipe book given away with newly purchased gas cookers in the 1940s–50s. It contains 14 'recipes' for 15 people. Each of the dishes was cooked and photographed by the artist in the same sequence that the original dishes were prepared. GIFT in the English language means a present, it is also the German word for poison.
214mm x 148mm x 5mm. 32pp, 17 black and white images, saddled stitched, offset lithography printed on Cyclus Print 100% recycled. Signed and numbered in an edition of 500 by Axminster Printing Company, Axminster, UK, June 2016.
See the complete book on our Instagram feed.
Why Say It Again?, 2013
Another spine chiller from Sarah Bodman. Ostensibly this is a book of ‘dates’ with names and places and drinks noted down beneath a barely discernible glass ring mark. But this book has dark roots. It is the diary of an international poisoner. It is inspired by the historical case of a woman who practiced her delivery of Strychnine on many friends and family before getting it ‘right’. Her poison of choice, a bitter substance, was masked through strong or overly sweet drinks and foods, with meticulous note-taking of her attempts to formulate the correct amounts. The artist ponders how she would have administered her poison today? The appointments made, would she perhaps have been successful first time, or would she have needed to ask for another meeting?
Each page has been screenprinted with a clear water-based varnish, the stencils made from dipping glasses and cups into ink to make a mark, just as you would if you put a glass or cup onto a table. The marks, like the poison are barely discernible. The handwritten, colour appointments are in watercolour pencil. Once the job is done, the colourful notes can be wiped away, leaving only the first ‘date’ in pencil.
Edition of 20, September 2013. 140 x 140mm. Bound in charcoal grey bookcloth with hand-tooled title and ribbon ties by Rachel James of Bristol Bound Bookbinders.
£160 (plus P&P and insurance)
The Collector, 1998
Inspired by the John Fowles' novel
A study of the idea of the collector; through a series of images that gradually unveil a sinister side to the idea of collecting in both nature and human nature. The book contains a series of hand printed images of botanical greenhouses and old amateur biology slides. Each image was photographed, then screenprinted with hand-colouring. Each box also contains one slide in tissue slipcase, from those photographed for the edition.
Water-based screenprinting inks, all pages hand-tinted with watercolours. Printed on Somerset Satin 300gsm. Hand bound by Guy Begbie, hardback, cloth covers. Boxed with individual glass slide.
Edition of 10, 20 pp, 19 x 19cms.
£150 (plus P&P and insurance)