Before beginning my PhD investigation into the engravings of Thomas Bewick - funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council - it felt important to somehow introduce myself to the man. It happened in the same place I first encountered his work, during the 2009's IKON Tale-Pieces exhibition held at Newcastle's own Laing Gallery. That exhibition was very much an accidental discovery and once opened, the door has never since closed. Magnifying glass in hand, I was happily examining, wincing, smirking and puzzling at the tiny engravings. Hours later, I had a notebook full of strange lines on what I had seen when peaking through these tiny windows of eighteenth and nineteeth-century North East England that Bewick so beautifully engraved onto boxwood, inked and printed.
IKON displayed the prints immaculately. I cannot stress enough how important it is to encounter work in the right context. To give these miniature prints room to breathe is to highlight their importance and value alongside larger oils in the rooms beside. The experience of moving from one tale-piece to another in that softly lit room has occupied a space in my mind for many years and will for years to come.

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