Picture Book comprises a programme of exhibitions co-curated by PAGES and The Tetley and held in conjunction with the 19th International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair. The catalogue provides a collection of texts and images that reflect on the displayed works and on the project’s theme of the image as the primary manifestation of idea, narrative and expression in the form of the book.

Shown in parallel with Roger Palmer’s exhibition Winter Garden which appropriates a century old illustration of a palm tree, Picture Book includes photographic works by Craig Atkinson (Café Royal) who has taken The Tetley archive as a starting point for a commissioned publication; Christian Barnes’ large scale Bathymetric Atlas – a unique hand-made book revealing, page-by-page through successive cutouts, the hidden contours of the principal lakes in the English Lake District, and a comprehensive exhibition of artist’s books by David Barton surveying 38 years of his daily practice of drawing, drawings collected, formatted and published with regular uniformity.

Art/design collective Nous Vous (Nicolas Burrows, Jay Cover and William Edmonds) presented a range of their collaborative outputs, and independent publisher Landfill Editions showcased their Mould Map series encompassing graphic imagery, short fiction and science-fact. Offsite, printmaker Mick Welbourn exhibited his extensive series of unique Blue Books in the Wild Pansy Press Project Space at the University of Leeds.

A second publication, PAGES Text Book, documents the wealth of current production within the artists’ book genre as represented by the participants of the 19th International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair and also features some of the new publishing initiatives and ventures that have been instigated especially for the event.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the exhibiting artists, writers, Locus+, Louise Atkinson, The Tetley and the University of Leeds in making this collaboration possible.