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Louisa Boyd's Page

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Background
Louisa Boyd graduated in 2001 from the Manchester Metropolitan University after studying Embroidery and showed a series of artists' books relating to landscape as her final pieces. In the same year she entered her books at the New Designers Show and won The Paperchase Future of Design Award and a high commendation from the judges of the New Designer of the Year, both highly prestigious awards. This led on to her exhibiting them in two solo shows, the first in Tottenham Court Road (Paperchase's flagship store) and then in Manchester at the sister store.

"My work is inspired by the natural world, and the human connection with it and I am fascinated by the innate human response to nature. Despite the fact that many of us live detached from the natural environment in cities with lives governed by technology, we are still able to understand the powerful symbolism that nature depicts. We can relate to these themes with ease, understanding that a bird in flight can display freedom, a flock can demonstrate companionship and a forest pathway can show a personal journey. The symbols need little explanation, they are meant to be accessible to all; to illustrate the intrinsic human connection to nature.

My interest in this area has developed over a series of personal experiences and events that have led me to feel at a distance from nature, periods of my life where I have lived in cities and found it difficult to experience quiet and serenity, and events such as the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic in the UK that led to large areas of the countryside being temporarily unaccessible. It is during these periods of time that I recognise how important the natural environment is to me and long to immerse myself in it and portray it through my work, consequently the themes of restriction and freedom consistently reoccur in my pieces.

Working with books sculpturally allows me to represent these concepts. Pages can be used restrictively and may only give glimpses of information contained within them due to cut work, the way that they are bound and exhibited. Many of my books are not meant to be opened with pages turned, they are meant to be viewed only as a three dimensional form. Some books depict birds flying from them, released from their binding, others use the edges of the pages to show a broken image of a landscape.

In other senses using the book itself represents another move away from our cultural heritage, as they become replaced by technology. I am not standing against the advances we have made, only wanting to recognise the importance of what has gone before. In such senses, the process of bookbinding has become as important as the sculptures themselves and the concepts behind them. Recognising the beauty and skill involved in making books is just as much part of the work. It is a slow process, and requires patience, concentration and practice, but it is calming and rewarding. The hand bound book stands out in an age where we are used to fast results and machine-made objects.

Materials and technique play an important role in the pieces, and I dedicate a lot of time to experimenting with paper, pushing it as a material and understanding it's fragile properties, appreciating what it can and cannot do. I enjoy the sometimes unpredictable nature of the material. The conscious decision to leave some of my artist's books without covers exposes them and their message and further alludes to the delicacy of our natural world."

Louisa Boyd's Photos

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Louisa Boyd's Blog

De-Stress and Deconstruction of the Book - by Emerson Whitney, November 16 2011

Posted on November 18, 2011 at 17:06 1 Comment

Louisa Boyd, "Flock" (2009)

Equally wild and soft, the book art of UK artist Louisa Boyd is an animated discourse on the distress and destruction of analogue media. She breaks and reconstructs books into sculpture, wondering loudly with the…

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Comment Wall (13 comments)

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At 4:45 on August 24, 2010, Angela Davies said…
Hi Louise, Hope that you are well.
Thought I would let you know that I have an exhibition space at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, Manchester. I will be there from 21st-24th October. It would be wonderful if you could attend. Angela
At 3:40 on February 26, 2010, Lineadarte Officina Creativa said…
Dear Artist, LineaDarte Officina Creativa is promoting the Biennale of Artist's Book
with the care of Gennaro Ippolito and Giovanna Donnarumma we will be glad of his presence
so please take part.
We hereby invite you to view all the rules of



www.biennaledellibrodartista.org
At 22:33 on January 3, 2010, Angela Davies said…
Hi Louisa,
I really like your work - it's unique and very beautiful. I notice that you live local to me, have you come across www.artistsbooksonline.com before? It may be something that you'd be interested in participating in.
Angela
At 17:32 on December 18, 2009, Kerryn Madsen-Pietsch said…
Hi Louisa - thanks.
Kept very busy this feastive season - cos now while I have my own art retail/custom framing business to run, I'm also trying to complete enough artist book work by 24th Dec. deadline for an upcoming regional curated group exhibition in Feb.
All the best to you for this feastive season! Cheers.
At 0:20 on December 18, 2009, Abigail Thomas said…
Lovely work Louisa.
At 7:58 on December 10, 2009, first line said…
Great work, I especially like your most recent additions.
Mark
At 23:57 on December 7, 2009, Kerryn Madsen-Pietsch said…
Wonderfully creative, beautiful and inspiring work Louisa.
At 6:57 on November 3, 2009, Francesca Fuller said…
Thanks Lou, it would be grand to make it over to the UK and take a workshop, one never knows. I look forward to seeing your on going work.
Cheers
Francesca
At 14:14 on November 2, 2009, Janet Goldner said…
Thanks Louisa! Your books are beautiful!
At 8:34 on November 1, 2009, Francesca Fuller said…
Hi Louisa, thanks for the contact back....I'm just starting to work in the book world of invention...background is in photograph. I'm trying to work with making metal books, with etching and photography transfers....when I accomplish something worthwhile I hope to put it up here.....do ever do workshops anywhere? I live on Vashon Island off Seattle, WA.....
Cheers
Francesca
 
 
 

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