WILD PANSY PRESS
Editors: Simon Lewandowski and Chris Taylor
The Wild Pansy Press is based in the School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds.
Established in 1995 by Chris Taylor and Adrian Rifkin, WPP is dedicated to developing this particular genre of publishing. Adrian has moved on but Chris was joined in 2008 by artist and Leeds colleague, Simon Lewandowski.
WPP publishes artists' books, publications and multiples in collaboration with practising artists, galleries and institutions by providing advice and help on design, production and distribution. These include Pamela Golden and Gimpel Fils Gallery, London; Roxy Walsh and Annika Sundwig Gallery, New York; Karen Babayan and Hardware Gallery, London; Simon Lewandowski at Mediateca Santa Teresa, Milan; Rushton & Tyman and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester and Leeds Art Gallery. Many of the publications have also involved additional collaborators such as Paul Rooney, Geir Tore Holm, Pavel Büchler and Simon Morris.
One of Wild Pansy’s most important achievements is to have developed ongoing working relationships with a number of artists including Edinburgh-based Nicky Bird publishing ‘one-offs’ - Question for Seller and Gay Interest Beefcake - collections of unwanted photographs bound into albums and re-auctioned on eBay, to large print runs such as Haunting Housess and Tracing Echoes. Printed Matter, an edition of 14 hand bound ‘companion pieces’ was provided free to the 14 owners of the original copies of the 1894 Last Will & Testament of Patrick Allan Fraser.
This year Wild Pansy Press has launches its website and three ambitious new publications - 100 Things With Handles, A Random Dispersal of Dust (Mutely Understood) and Isole e Ponte/Islands and Bridges.
These publications can be termed artists’ books, where the concept, the content and the production is controlled and often undertaken by the artist/author such as PRUNUS (Karen Babayan/Chris Taylor); be a traditional exhibition catalogue as with Jack Chesterman’s VESSEL; or a hybrid, where the artist’s publication exists not only as a work of art in itself but also as a document of an event such as Red Herrings, again by Nicky Bird. In our increasingly technology-reliant society, the book format can still play a major role within an art practice providing an alternative and complementary experience to the exhibition that is personal and intimate.