Read With Me – an exhibition of an experiment, Bower Ashton Library


The Read With Me Exhibition takes place in the study area at Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol, from 2nd December 2019 – 15th January 2020. The exhibition will provide inspiration for a new artist’s book to be made in 2020. The drawings can also be viewed here as a pdf catalogue: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/pdf/readwithmeall.pdf  

Sarah Bodman: This exhibition continues the Read To Me project – an experiment made in collaboration with a psychometric reader, as an attempt to transmit the emotional content of stories through a series of physical objects. Ten objects were selected to read chapters of novels, or short texts to. They were then posted to the reader who relayed their messages back to me. This formed the basis of the artist’s book Read To Me (2018).

The project began by accident in winter 2002 at Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY, USA, when I undertook an Artist’s Publishing Residency to produce a limited edition artist’s book The Marsh Test. It was here that someone mentioned the Fox Sisters, Margaret and Kate who launched their careers (aged 16 and 13) as spirit mediums (170 years ago) with a public performance on 14th November 1849, at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, NY. Their performances played a part in the huge rise of interest in spirit rappings and in turn the founding of the Spiritualist Movement in 1850s America.

On Thursday 14th November 2019, an experiment took place at Arnolfini’s bookshop at 6.30pm. In tribute to the Fox Sisters and the artist Susan Hiller’s Sisters of Menon publication, attendees attempted to capture a reading that was transmitted. Others participated remotely and posted or emailed their drawings to me. Participants created 56 drawings, sent in from the UK, Australia, USA, The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

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Contributors to the exhibition:
Anon, Bristol, UK
Anonymouse, Bristol, UK
Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck, London, UK
Judith Archer, Bristol, UK
Frans Baake, Enschede, The Netherlands
Jackie Batey, Portslade, UK
Kate Bernstein, Bristol, UK
Guy Bigland, London, UK
Sarah Blair, Oxford, UK
Virginia Bridge, Bristol, UK
Ruth Broadway, Bristol, UK
Caelli Jo Brooker, London, UK
Angie Butler, Bristol, UK
Chrystal Cherniwchan, Bristol, UK
Egidija Čiricaitė, London, UK
David Dellafiora, Geelong, Australia
Kirsten Dietrich, Boensvig, Denmark
Lars Dietrich, Boensvig, Denmark
Jeremy Dixon, Vale of Glamorgan, UK
Mike Dutton, Bristol, UK
Sara Elgerot, Stockholm, Sweden
Gayle Evans, Bristol, UK
Lizzie Field, Bristol, UK
Caren Florance, Canberra, Australia
Samantha Forrest, Bristol, UK
Stephen Fowler, Bristol, UK
DJ Gaskin, Saluda, North Carolina, USA
Emma Gregory, Bristol, UK
Mariëtte de Groot, Enschede, The Netherlands
Gen Harrison, Edinburgh, Scotland
Wuon-Gean Ho, London, UK
Éilis Kirby, Bristol, UK
Elaine Knight, Stroud, UK
Damien Leech, Bristol, UK
Daniel Lehan, London, UK
Albert Lucas, Stroud, UK
Emily Lucas, Stroud, UK
Cecilia Mandrile, Bristol, UK
Laura Morgan, Bristol, UK
Pauline Morgan, Bristol, UK
Mike Nicholson, London, UK
Shaun Oaten, Clevedon, UK
Linda Parr, Bristol, UK
Richard Price, London, UK
Zhou Quan, Bristol, UK
Judy Russell, Winchester, UK
Matt Sage, London, UK
Gin Saunders, Bristol, UK
Alyn Smith, Avonmouth, UK
Tom Sowden, Bristol, UK
Noriko Suzuki-Bosco, Winchester, UK
Corinne Welch, Coombe Dingle, UK
Becky Williams, Bristol, UK
Elizabeth Willow, Liverpool, UK
Elena Zeppou, Marshfield, UK
Zinging, Bristol, UK

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