Newfoundland.

A FINE COLLABORATION BETWEEN JEWELLER, PHOTOGRAPHER AND BINDER.

One of 100 specially bound copies, with an additional 310 copies. 32 Photographs printed in black and white. 8vo., original Melinex and Japanese paper binding with external sewing bands, designed by Charles Gledhill and bound by Book Works, with original gold paper case and bubble envelope. London, Mile End Press and printed by ArtQuarters Press.  

  A collaboration between the noted jeweller Romilly Saumarez Smith, photographer Verdi Yahooda and typographers Nicola Barnacle and Daniel Edwards, Newfoundland is a book which explores the nature of memory and the role of objects and geography in creating and evoking it. In the book, metal-detected archaeological finds are first photographed against the background of an imagined landscape, each of which is given a plausible, if entirely fictitious, name, hinting at the world of those who created the objects, and those who lost them. A second series of photographs follows showing the objects after their transformation at the hands of Romilly Saumarez Smith; in some cases the objects seem to have naturally grown leaves and branches of gold, silver and coral, in others the objects remain clearly man-made but have been radically repurposed, with ring settings and inset pearls and diamonds. The overall impression is of both continuity and change, the objects retain their overall form but this form has been recontextualised by the additions, some of which seem intentional while others seem to have occurred organically; the implication is that memory is bidirectional, a process of both recollection and active recreation, and that objects aid this process physically and conceptually.

 

  The book is bound in a binding specially designed by Charles Gledhill and intended to resemble limp vellum bindings like those of the Doves Press, but made from contemporary archivally stable materials with external sewing reflecting the layout of each page.

 

  Romilly's work is represented in significant institutional collections and she has been featured in a number of leading publications. More of her work in the series can be seen here: http://www.romillysaumarezsmith.com/newfoundland-1/

 

Stock Code: 234333