RadioPaper is the debut artist’s book by British artist Mary Ramsden featuring five original short stories by novelist Adam Thirlwell.
Each publication features a unique hand-painted cover by Ramsden. Inside across 150 pages, the artist’s works on paper appear alongside a collection of short stories by Thirlwell: Autoportraits with Hidden Elements – a noirish reflection on the selfie.
Featuring solid blocks of colour, which interrupt decisive painterly marks, RadioPaper presents a tension between the flat surface and the gesture of the artist redolent of smudges and swipes on digital touch-screens within the rectangular framework. Using concealment as a deliberate compositional device, Ramsden obscures parts of the image and also the ending of each story by irlwell within the uncut, french-folded pages of the book.
RadioPaper marks the second phase of an ongoing collaboration between Ramsden and Thirlwell, which developed after the award-winning author asked the artist to create a painting in response to his latest novel Lurid & Cute published in January 2015. Subsequently, a painting with the same title appeared earlier this year in the artist’s last solo exhibition Swipe at Pilar Corrias Gallery in London.
New paintings by Ramsden including one work The Dirtiest Selfie at 50pt which borrows its title from a story in RadioPaper, also appear in an exhibition Vanilla & Concrete as part of the Art Now series at Tate Britain, London until 19 June 2016.
RadioPaper is a limited edition of 30, plus 2 artist’s proofs. Each artwork is produced by Book Works, published by Studio Leigh and signed and numbered by the artist.