This event has taken place
Although Book Arts Day for 2025 has taken place, the information on this page is being retained for reference until 2026 when it will be replaced by details of the next event.
Participating artists
Batool Showghi – Caroline Fraser – Caroline Penn – Chisato Tamabayashi – Chrissie Nichols (Inkpot & Pen) – City Lit (Sue Doggett) – Clare Dales – Clio Lloyd-Jacobs – Elizabeth Godwin (Quince Press) – Figo Chen – Frances Day (Bookband) – Ivan Salcedo – Jane Cradock-Watson – Joan Higgins – Mac McInerney-Baker – Mandy Brannan – Nick West – Roy Willingham– Ruth Martin – Sharon Lin – Sophie Artemis – Tracey Bush – Yuxuan Zhou – Zaima Ahmed
Batool Showghi
My multidisciplinary approach to the artist’s book involves photography, illustration, painting, and textiles. All of which are employed to explore themes of cultural heritage, memory, identity, and loss in very personal ways. My work is concerned with the experience of women and the way in which this experience relates to cultural and religious boundaries as well as reflecting on the theme of turbulence, immigration, disintegration of the family and the experience of displacement.
@batoolshowghi
Caroline Fraser
Caroline’s photography and book art is a response to the beauty and infinite variation of objects found in nature, along with a concern for the natural environment. Her quiet representations of mood and place are created with an emphasis on the intimate details within nature, using abstraction and layering. She works with both photographic images and ink drawings, creating both limited edition hand sewn photo books and one-off works using calligraphic techniques, threads and wax.
@carolinefraserphotography
Caroline Penn
My practice is centred on our connection to the domestic environment and our emotional engagement with things. I make works that reveal the stories behind familiar and familial objects. Layering the analogue and the digital – photographs, drawings and found imagery – with text taken from everyday conversations and technical reports, I build up a narrative and reveal the emotions and stories behind these objects. Persistent themes have explored memory, absence and loss, as well as ideas of the seen and unseen, historical pain and present-day reparation.
@penn.caroline
Chisato Tamabayashi
Chisato Tamabayashi is a London-based book artist. Her work explores the potential of paper by means of printmaking, paper engineering and cutting with a scalpel. Through various process of cutting, folding and layering, she experiments with the sculptural and architectural possibilities of the material itself, changing a raw flat sheet of paper into an object that expresses depth and dimensions.
She has exhibited at various fairs and exhibitions and has been commissioned by Tate Modern, the V&A, Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council, The Museum of Modern Art along with various private commissions.
@chisatotamabayashi
Chrissie Nichols (Inkpot & Pen)
I am an Inksmith working with illustration, hand and cutout lettering in my artists’ books.
Inspired but he natural world and interested in our responses to the human condition which include the challenges of everyday life.
My work often focuses on the everyday things we see… that we don’t see, the small details that bring colour, humour and interest to the here and now. In my hand drawn maps the focus is on reacquainting the viewer with small architectural details which through familiarity, become invisible.
@inkpotandpen
City Lit (Sue Doggett)
Book Arts at City Lit is a vibrant area of our bookbinding provision and we run a wide variety of courses from beginners to advanced. Some of our classes focus on constructing specific book structures and in others, students develop their personal creative practice, engaging in critical discussion about their own work and the work of others. Many of our book arts students are independent practitioners who work using a range of processes including print, digital arts, text, sculpture, drawing and calligraphy. Many of them exhibit regularly at book fairs across the UK. Please visit our Instagram @citylit.bookbinding.bookarts for examples of the kinds of courses we run and the work that students make.
@citylit.bookbinding.bookarts
Clare Dales
Leperello and hand stitched mapfold books inspired by journeys, turkish mapfold and small books containing tiny worlds. Lino print and drawings.
@claredalesart
Clio Lloyd-Jacobs
My work spans several disciplines and is frequently collaborative. I have been drawn to book arts recently for their portability and potential for varied ways of access. The work I wish to bring is an iteration within an ongoing development of imagery and poems about the complex experiences we can have in families.
@cliolloydjacob
Elizabeth Godwin (Quince Press)
Quince Press’s creative and critical work is concerned with the effects of landscape, building and memory and what this can tell us about our ongoing relationship with built and unbuilt landscapes. The importance of water and light in shaping our sense of architecture and the ecology of place is also a focus of her research and creative practice.
Figo Chen
I have been exploring how to express my ideas through different binding forms or printing methods by designing books. Therefore, I use various materials on book covers, such as cotton, fabric, metal, and tracing paper. I believe that typesetting and binding forms are the unique charm of books, which e-books cannot match. As an independent book artist, I have been looking for a platform to share and exchange my works and a team to collaborate with.
Frances Day (Bookband)
The Bookband is a group of 6 artists who regularly exhibit together and who meet regularly to share techniques, support and inspiration. All our work features hand-made artists’ books, using multi media, print-making, digital art, letterpress, drawing and bookbinding skills. We have exhibited recently at BABE, the Book Fair in Edinburgh, Brighton Artists Books and many other venues, as well as exhibiting at the Society of Bookbinders at previous events.
http://thebookband.co.uk and @bookbandart
https://coolandfroody.co.uk and @froodyartbooks
Ivan Salcedo
I create surreal and absurd narratives through the medium of paper engineering and book structures, layering meaning both visually and physically. My work invites readers to engage with unfolding ideas—literally—through hidden compartments, shifting perspectives, and playful mechanics. I use visual and tactile puns to spark curiosity, turning the familiar into something unexpected. Each piece is an exploration of transformation, where pages twist, pop, and reveal surprises that challenge perception. By blending craftsmanship with a sense of humour, I aim to provoke wonder and delight, encouraging readers to question what is real and what is simply illusion.
Jane Cradock-Watson
Jane is a book artist, illustrator and printmaker. She is interested in the relationship between nature, landscape and the human condition, as well as the haptic nature of books and printmaking.
Jane’s books explore the development of narratives through the handling qualities of books, experimenting with the physical form of the book and the surface qualities of different papers.
Common themes in Jane’s work, other than the natural world include a sense of place, memory and the visual culture of the domestic.
Her books are held in private and public collections including the V&A National Library, Tate Britain and the Yale Collection of British Art.
@janec_w
Joan Higgins
Joan is a Book Artist and Printmaker, living in London. She completed the two year City Lit Fine Art course in 2016 and graduated from the University of the Arts London in 2019, with an MA in Visual Arts (Book Art).
She is a Social Scientist by background and her art reflects an interest in families, communities and working lives. She explores the ways in which the land, particularly in Yorkshire and in Ireland, has shaped industry, created inequalities and influenced language. She works with found objects, tools and artefacts to explore ‘other lives’. She uses print, photographs and collage to remake images and create new stories. Her books are hand- made – folded, sewn, stitched, glued – crafted in small editions.
@joanhigginsartist
Mac McInerney-Baker
My work explores the tactile, transformative process of creating prints from discarded TetraPak cartons, where folding, rolling, and manipulating the matrix yield detailed, landscape-like images. These prints reflect both external landscapes, reminiscent of discarded litter and organic surfaces, and internal landscapes, embodying the complexities of personal history and experience. Bookbinding has become central in documenting this evolution, like an unfolding map of my practice. My practice has evolved to examine how queerness is embodied within the body, using abstracted figures to invite reflection. My work offers a quiet, enduring presence, creating a space where lived experience connects with universal themes.
@mcinerneyprints
Mandy Brannan
Mandy Brannan is a London based book artist and artisan papermaker.
She observes and engages with patterns, images and text to create her visual arts language that is influenced by her personal interaction with architectural structures and details.
Her artists’ books combine several material processes including many of the following: found diagrams, digital manipulation, hand drawn elements, photos and specially designed and created handmade paper.
@mandybrannan
Nick West
I make books, prints, and installations.
I’m interested in the physicality of books, and the capacity of language to convey meaning through structure and repetition.
In other projects, I appropriate written and visual languages. The results are recognisable, if altered, imagery presented on flat surfaces.
Roy Willingham
I make art in a variety of media. My books are usually small editions or unique pieces and often I will collaborate with a poet friend Mike Sims. I have an interest in using recycled materials and working with found books/papers etc.
Ruth Martin
Ruth Martin creates limited edition hand printed artist books printed with hand cut rubber stamps and a hint of mischief. Words and language are central to her practice, be that idioms and expressions, the packaging of everyday items or casual conversation.
Recent titles include THINK ON! a book that shows Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ having a lightbulb moment; THE APPLE PIE CHART a book that playfully suggests that apples are at the core of Art, Science & Creativity, plus flick books of dripping taps, disco balls and clapping hands.
All are printed in the hope to raise a smile.
@nothingbuttheruth_
Sharon Lin
Hi, I’m Sharon! A Taiwan-born, London-based creative bean specialising in illustration, graphic design, and animation. Occasionally, a cooking class host as well.
I’m passionate about books, printmaking, and comics, but most of all, anything about food, people, and mental health.
I love dogs by the way.
@shushpupps
Sophie Artemis
Maker of tunnel books and beguiling books with Pop-up, moving pages about codes, journeying through time, London, hidden places and the tenacity of nature. Vivid, intimate, small editions that journey into the book, hiding and revealing as the work is handled, viewed and explored. Artist in residence at a women’s prison. Work in the V&A Art library and Tate Library collections and many university collections.
@sophie.artemis
Tracey Bush
I have made artists’ books since 1994. My initial series of books, based on the River Thames were published under the press name Fathom Five Books. Each book is a cohesion of concept and form, entirely produced and bound myself, and demands a range of technical and craft skills, some of which I regularly teach.
Yuxuan Zhou
Yuxuan Zhou is a London-based illustrator, researcher, and book artist. Her practice embraces playfulness, as she experiments with diverse materials and formats to best express her vivid narratives and versatile illustrations. Viewing the book as an intimate medium for storytelling, Yuxuan creates zines, comics, and art books that offer uniquely engaging reading experiences.
Zaima Ahmed
Zaima Ahmed is a multi-dimensional, mixed media artist and illustrator of a Pakistani heritage. With work experience in Graphic design, Concept Art and illustration. She explores the connections between human beings and nature, between reality and imagination, between inner and outer worlds, translating this further into her work that always told tales and stories of self-discoveries. Experimenting with different mediums, she tries to explore the domains of story building and illustrating and converts the scattered and chaotic mess of thoughts into organized realities. Its like a product of thoughts, observations and emotions, all intermingled and transitioned through versatile art forms in her work.
Artist books group 