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Life, the Universe and Everything: Artists’ Books which Question our Relationship with Nature and the Way we Live / A Sense of Place in Artist Books

The invitation to be part of this exhibition was related to the specific area of research relevant to my practice, in this case, documentary land use/intervention related to socio-political/historical influence related to contested land through civil warfare. This group exhibition of artist books was an exploration of our relationship to nature and asked the "viewers questions about how we perceive, treat and respond to nature and our wider environment".

My work, "Serpentina" documented a hillside track on Mount Srd, above the historic city of Dubrovnik. This track which weaved its way up the mountain in a serpent-like pattern was a pilgrimage for the mothers of those killed in the war between Croatia and Serbia in the early 1990's, amidst the siege of the walled city. I spent time in Dubrovnik researching the track and gaining information from locals on the importance of the pilgrimage. The track ends at the top of the mountain next to an altar erected as a memorial to the dead. The mountains form the natural boundary between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina from where the attacks on the city were launched.

This work was exhibited alongside works by Sarah Bodman, Finlay Taylor, Tracey Bush and Colin Sackett amongst others (15 in total). This work references a particular area of documentary artist bookworks, notably Ed Ruscha's All the buildings on the Sunset Strip and Twenty Six Gasoline Stations; The Centre for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in Los Angeles looking at how land is used, perceived, divided and conquered; LAND2, a research community of artists and academics from across the UK with an interest in landscape/place oriented art practice. This incorporates all areas of art practice, performance, geography, philosophy, archaeology, all brought together via symposia and conferences from time to time.