A Curious Case is a collaborative cross-disciplinary artwork made with printmaker Julia McKinlay. In it, we imaginatively repurpose, enlarge and re-frame select pages from Newcastle University's Law Library’s book collection to produce two new etchings that celebrate the Law Library's fortieth year, the books the library contains and the documentation-driven discipline of law. The printed artworks re-imagine core archival resources to reignite the inquisitiveness of students, staff and members of the public to look to these Law Library books with a revived enthusiasm, to rethink their content and recognise their value.
Our practices speak to one another in this example of ekphrasis. It explores the relationship between visual and poetic image-making, the subject of my PhD research. For the diptych, I selected over 100 clusters of poetic language from Hobart's Reports to which McKinlay responded to their spatial position and signification to produce a pair of these collaborative etchings, one below.
To view the artwork, visit Newcastle University Law Library where they are on permanent display.
