Further copies of both variants of TOWN have arrived from binder Craig Jensen in Texas and will be shipping this week. Packing, packing, packing!

NYC BOOK LAUNCH: This special one-night event will feature an exhibition of hand-printed photographs by Rich Gilligan, a live poetry recital by Annemarie Ní Churreáin and Jamie Murphy will talk about the making of the book, exploring the ways in which the collaborators interacted with site, materials, production tools / values and collaborative working methods. Belinda McKeon will host a discussion about the project with the artists.

Please contact for printed prospectus.

7pm – 9pm, July 17th, 2018

American Irish Historical Society, 

991 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028

RSVP to Sophie Colgan: scolgan@aihs.org

Link to video piece: https://vimeo.com/277675093

Rich Gilligan shot the images for TOWN over the last days of 2017. He walked for miles through Dublin streets with a view to capturing a moment in time, never to be repeated again. The 35mm rolls were then sent to Barb Wilson in London for processing. Barb in turn sent contact sheets to Rich in New York where the edit was selected and finalised. Videographer (and previous TSP assistant) Ruairi Conaty followed Rich one afternoon and captured some wonderful footage of the artist at work for an upcoming video piece.

TOWN will comprise of ten new poems by Annemarie Ní Churreáin and a series of new photographs by Rich Gilligan. The book will serve as a snapshot of Dublin City, affectionately known to locals as 'Town'. The interplay of text and image will be facilitated by a series of staggered folding pages. The book will be printed on newly commissioned handmade paper with the tipped-in images all exposed by hand onto resin coated paper.

About the collaborators: Annemarie Ní Churreáin is a poet from North West Donegal. She has been awarded literary fellowships by Akademie Schloss Solitude (Germany), Jack Kerouac House (Florida) and Hawthornden Castle (Scotland). Her work has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The SHOp, The London Magazine, Agenda Poetry Journal and The Stinging Fly.In 2016, Annemarie was the recipient of a Next Generation Artists Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2017, Annemarie was appointed to the Writers In Prisons Panel co-funded by the Arts Council & the Department of Justice, Equality and Reform. She is second place winner of the 2017 Red Line Festival Poetry Award. Her debut collection BLOODROOT was published in 2017 by Doire Press. Rich Gilligan is known for his distinctive approach to fashion and portraiture, with a style that exists somewhere between classic reportage and fine art photography. Rich's photography has been widely exhibited, with recent shows in Dali, Malmo, Dublin, London, Munich, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Sydney and Copenhagen. He was awarded the 2013 Showcase Photography Award from the Gallery of Photography, Dublin for emerging talent in Europe and was recently selected by Time Magazine as one of the top nine photographers to watch. Rich is currently based in upstate New York.

Designed in 1957, the type will be set Adrian Frutiger’s Méridien in 14 and 20 point sizes. Rich Gilligan’s photographs were shot over the last days of 2017. They will be enlarged from the 35mm negatives onto resin coated paper by Barb Wilson at her studio in London. The watermarked handmade paper is 200 gsm, commissioned for the book from the Velké Losiny Mill in the Czech Republic.

The book will be printed in an edition of 80 copies. Copies marked 1 — 50 will be bound in hand painted book-cloth over boards, housed in a cloth covered slipcase. Four similar copies marked i — iv will be for collaborators. Copies marked A — Z will be bound in full alum tawed calf leather and will each be housed, accompanied by a portfolio containing eight further photographic prints, in a painted cloth covered solandar box. These bindings will be executed by Tom Duffy and family in Dublin’s Five Lamps area. 

I hope to launch the book during Summer, 2018.