Transformation by Jo Shapcott is a beautiful, tactile volume featuring previously unpublished works by this award-winning poet.
The book is available in a strictly limited edition of 250. It was designed, illustrated, typeset and hand printed by Paula Jackson and Robert Teed in 2013.
Jo Shapcott’s Transformation poems were originally commissioned as part of a 2012 inter-disciplinary project curated by Jackson and Teed at the New School House Gallery in York. Shapcott’s poem ‘Piss Flower’, which originally responded to Chadwick’s eponymous sculptures, formed the foundation of a new set of poems – each of the newly written poems springing from a word or phrase in the original.
Transformation was supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Arts Council England. It is also now an integral part of the Education programme at York St John University.
Jackson and Teed hand-composited each poem in metal letterset then printed them using an Albion press onto Hahnemuhle paper. Their illustrations respond to each of Shapcott’s poems and were hand-printed from laser-etched plates.
In an age of ubiquitous digital literary consumption, Transformation is testament to both the craft of poetry and the craft of making books in the time-honoured way.
For a digital preview see here.
The book was first launched at the Jerwood Space in London in July 2015.
ISBN: 978-0-9575147-0-6, 28 pp.
To purchase a copy of Transformation for £20, please contact Robert Teed