Cambridge, United Kingdom

How Stories Are Born

I use the shape and structure of a book, as well as the combination of various materials and textures to tell a story without the need for legible words. The visual and tactile experience of handling a book is another language, just as powerful and meaningful. This book refers to the origin of stories. Here the structure of the book aims to symbolically convey the oral tradition of passing on stories, long before the book as a structure came about. The illegibility of the “mother” story births into being many other smaller stories, rich and intricate in detail. The stories spring about from the main story, escape and reach far, becoming independent tales, yet at this stage in the process are still attached to their roots. The leather cover of the book charts a visual map, a landscape in which the stories travel on.

A concertina book with aquarelle paper, goat skin, cotton thread, beads, stones, ink. 10 pages. 5.5 x 11.4 x 2.75 inches. 2011. Unique.

SOLD!

Artist Biography

Since her first exhibition of paintings in 1992, Finnish born artist Mia Leijonstedt (b.1971) has pursued her interest in artist’s books and studied both traditional and modern bookbinding skills. She first studied in Helsinki University of Art and Design but moved to the UK in 1993 where she graduated from Roehampton University with BA Bookbinding in 1997. She now creates artworks that span several creative disciplines. She has exhibited internationally in over 40 shows including the UK, Ireland, Japan, Canada, the US, France and Finland as well as has won a dozen awards for both artistic and technical merit – including the Open Choice Book 1st Prize in the Designer Bookbinders Annual Competition in the British Library, London in 2005.