Artist Books

The principal inspiration for these books was a library volume I came across a number of years ago. The architect was unfamiliar to me, but the bound collection of 19th C engravings made an instant impression: the tactile quality of the old leather binding, the physical size and weight, the exacting qualities of the engravings themselves. It was this physical experience that helped one gain some concrete feeling for the buildings themselves. Ironically, these were buildings never to be executed, limited only by the architect’s own imagination and unhindered by compromise or budget constraints.

The opportunity to actually realize my own book developed out of a special project in Halifax in 2008 featuring Image House, a Halifax printing business. The resulting book printed 8 images from my Landmarks of Industrial Britain series with a multi-cartridge carbon ink jet system. The books were then hand bound by bookbinder Don Taylor in Toronto. Part of my intent was to actually mimic to some degree, the look of old architectural engravings or prints.

A second version of Landmarks of Industrial Britain printed by me in sepia colour followed the original printing in 2009.

I printed a 3rd book “Lost City” which was an early full colour version of “Cold City” in 2012.