‘SUBSTANCE’ is Portsmouth’s Artists Book Event for 2018 and will showcase a diverse and challenging range of artists books, performances and activities. Independent artist book makers will offer work for sale, while poets and performers inform and entertain at Aspex Gallery on the 18th of March.

Live Zine Making

The event will have Winchester School of Art bringing along their Risograph printing machine, to produce a live ‘zine at the event, of the event, during the event. Generative Remix involves students from Winchester School of Art creating a responsive publication taking in the day’s events, a remix of the day. Using Xerox and Risography, Students will then create an edition of this publication at the end of the day. You can contribute and have your work in print at the end of the day too.

Danny Aldred of Winchester School of Art has also arranged a short series of talks by Artists Book practitioners Egidija Čiricaitė, Suzuki-Bosco, and Catherine Polley.

Artists Involved

There will be handmade, hand bound, hand illustrated books in a grand range of subjects, styles and formats to peruse, examine, discuss and even to buy; performances by poets, readings by writers, and characters coming to life to tell you their stories. The artist line up includes staff and students from University of Portsmouth Illustration (including Ministry of Books, Illustration and Interior Design students) plus:

– Winchester School of Art Graphic Design
– Artists Books Online – collective of artist book makers
– Pete Kennedy// Apuldram//Apulhead Originals
– Mark Beechill// Less Than 500 Press
– Tracey Bush// Fathom Five Books
– Eileen White
– Helen Scalway
– Jan Fairbairn-Edwards
– Murray Marshall// Transrational Publications
– Lee Shearman//Microlibrary Books

In addition there will be performances and readings by poet Majid Dhana//Jidos Reality, who was recently an artist-in-residence at Aspex, Portsmouth based writers Christine Lawrence and Amanda Garrie from UoP Creative Writing course, Portsmouth Writers’ Hub and many others.

Find out more from Aspex event pages HERE.