Finding and buying the old letterpress block ( sometimes called a ‘zinco’ ) of the old county of Derbyshire coat of arms in a junk market; the three stags heads version, led me to explore the animal imagery available in the county. I was struck by the interest and vitality of historic associations and the potential for listing and juxtaposing medieval sculpture of animals and fantastical monsters with contemporary features of the county like wind farms, security devices etc.
Each specific example collected is numbered and listed in the index. It is part of the chance of printing and making the book that of say thirty collected examples, your book may have nineteen examples in a unique configuration, each identifiable by a letterpress number in red referring to the index. This book plays with the mediaeval codex of a bestiary format but with a modern twist and is certainly unreliable and unique in content.
About the Artist:
Peter Knight is an artist, printmaker ,bookartist and painter based in Derbyshire. He has been a member of the Society of Bookbinders for fifteen years and made the production of limited print run books an important part of his output.
Peter’s work in all aspects of artistic exploration is based loosely on the local environment and the history, geology and topography expressed through drawing, markmaking and other hand made processes.
He has a studio in Haarlem Mill, Wirksworth and exhibits in a number of exhibitions and fairs in Derbyshire and the locality.
Links
More examples of the work of Peter Knight are available to view on
his website: www.knightprinter.com
Instagram: @commonpresscrich
Notts Book Arts 