Sarah Bodman and Nancy Campbell created a new edition of Dinner and a Rose, an artist’s book in homage to the novel The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. This new edition has been created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the last Ripley novel’s publication in 2021.
Sarah prepared a delicious, if sinister, dinner, for twelve guests, with a thirteenth place set for the absent Tom Ripley. Every food mentioned by Highsmith was served, from cold chicken in aspic to sole Veronique, and every drink mixed (even Dubonnet!). The dinner lasted over twelve hours. All the night’s conversations were recorded and Nancy used the transcriptions as collage material, creating a series of 18 poems.
Sarah photographed Ripley’s setting for each course; images and poems partner each other in the finished work.
Printed by Axminster Printing Company in an edition of 500, September 2021.
Text: Nancy Campbell, Image: Sarah Bodman. 21 x 14.8 cm, 40 pages. Digital print with silver detail on Nautilus Classic 135gsm recycled paper. £10 including P&P worldwide. To purchase please email: Sarah.Bodman@uwe.ac.uk
About the Artists
Sarah Bodman is Senior Research Fellow for Artists’ Books at the Centre for Print Research (CFPR), where she run projects investigating and promoting contemporary book arts.
Sarah is the editor of the Artist’s Book Yearbook a biennial reference publication on contemporary book arts, published here by Impact Press. She is also the editor of the Book Arts Newsletter and The Blue Notebook journal for artists’ books. Apart from this, Sarah has written regular news columns and articles on artists’ booksfor different journals and publications.
Sarah’s own artists’ books include Flowers in Hotel Rooms Volumes I-V, an ongoing series of books inspired by Richard Brautigan’s novel The Abortion; Do Not Enter, unique pulp/screenprinted book for Tim Mosely’s Codex Event 8, Brisbane, Australia, in the collection of Librorum Apud Artificem library for the artist’s book, Sydney, Australia.
Sarah has been collaborating with the poet and artist Nancy Campbell, on an annual video and book production for World Book Night since 2010. Each event is in tribute to a particular novel.
Nancy Campbell is a British poet, non-fiction writer and publisher of artist’s books. Her first collection of poetry, Disko Bay (2015), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Other works include The Library of Ice (2018) and Fifty Words for Snow (2020). In 2018, she was appointed Canal Laureate by the Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust.
Nancy began her career in letterpress studios in British Columbia and Brooklyn, and has created a number of limited edition books including How To Say ‘I Love You’ In Greenlandic: An Arctic Alphabet. She is dedicated to developing innovative projects to engage audiences with environmental issues such as interactive live literature event The Polar Tombola.
More Links
View Sarah Bodman’s Work: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/sarah-bodman-gallery/
Nancy Campbell’s Homepage: http://nancycampbell.co.uk/
Notts Book Arts 