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We wish all our students and staff a very Happy New Year and invite you to come along to ECA Library to enjoy our new display of book works by artist and print maker Susie Wilson.
We are fortunate to have several artists’ books in our collection by Susie, in addition to the major boxed work she created in response to her residency at ECA library in 2016.
The works featured are:
Cabinet on left:
1: Flutter, Edinburgh, 2011
2: Inside Outside, Edinburgh, 2011
3: Hidden Inside, Edinburgh, 2011
4: Tunnel, Edinburgh, 2011
5: Insect Life, Edinburgh, 2011
Cabinet on right:
6: Untitled, Edinburgh, 2016
For more information about Susie’s work click here.
We are delighted to have a pop up display of books relating to British architect Cedric Price (1934-2003), at the A&A Library, to coincide with the new Thinkbelt exhibition at the Mathew Gallery, Minto House.
The exhibition celebrates the legacy of Cedric Price and prompts reflection on how architecture can be useful, timely, delightful and permeable to respond to current environmental and social challenges.
Curated by Prof. María José Martínez Sánchez, Dr. Ana Bonet Miró, Martin Brown, the exhibition runs from 11-22 November 2024.
The exhibition’s centrepiece features two original market stall prototypes from the Drawing Matter Collection, designed by Price and never exhibited before. Alongside these prototypes, a range of archival materials – including prints of original drawings, texts, ephemera, film extracts and audio recordings – offers a glimpse into the diversity of Price’s practice and the interdisciplinary conversations that animated it.
In the spirit of Price’s Potteries Thinkbelt project, this initiative aims to stimulate discussions about some of the key principles of his architecture – such as the provision of user-centred designs that increase choice, encourage change, do more with less, facilitate easy assembly and disassembly, and create responsive designs that delight the communities they serve – in relation to a selection of pedagogies and practices at each school. It prompts some of Price’s key design questions: Who do we design for? How little need be done? For how long is it useful? How to make time visible in our designs? What might design for pleasure and delight mean today?
At ECA Library we are surrounded by many original artworks. Each piece conveys the College of Art’s close links to prominent artists and benefactors.
As you enter the library, Janet Boulton’s piece Little Fields Long Horizons flanks the doorway. Only if you stand in just the right place can you make out the words in relief without the reflection obscuring them. Donated by the artist in September 2009, it is a standout example of her method for paper pulp relief work. Boulton passed away in January of this year, and this piece represents her lasting legacy as an artist-in-residence at ECA in 2006.
Janet Boulton
Boulton’s focus on garden design and history brought her into collaboration with Ian Hamilton Finlay, an internationally renowned poet, writer, visual artist and avant-gardener. Finlay’s ‘philosophers garden’, Little Sparta, in the Pentland Hills served as an immense source of inspiration for Boulton, and the subject of her residency at ECA. This piece draws on Finlay’s poem, engraved on three pairs of stones at Little Sparta. We can recommend Boulton’s book, which describes in exquisite detail Boulton’s works on Little Sparta, and there are two copies available to loan at ECA Library. Janet Boulton : remembering Little Sparta : watercolours, reliefs, garden works, 1993-2009. For all books by Janet Boulton, including original Artists’ books featuring her paper relief works, click here.
Fittingly, a piece by Finlay joins Boulton’s on the same wall at ECA, Evening / Sail. Known for his contribution to the genre of concrete poetry, Finlay has long been a focus of study at the University, including a symposium in 2017 which explored his art and poetics. Books about Finlay’s diverse artworks, including Artists’ Books, can be explored here.
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Moving to the windows by the current journal wall, we pass the immutable gaze of Andrew Grant, Edinburgh College of Art’s most prominent benefactor of the 19th century. This piece is by Kenny Hunter in 2015, a leading Scottish artist and then Programme Director of Sculpture at the College. With Andrew Grant’s generous support, the ECA Main Building on Lauriston Place was built in 1907, and the Andrew Grant Bequest was established, which since 1930 has provided scholarships for ECA students. The sculpture is painted bronze, including the base, which succeeds in disguising itself as wood.
Kenny Hunter
Moving downstairs, we can see ‘Eight photographs of Blinky Palermo’ by concrete photographer Monika Baumgartl, documenting the momentous ‘Strategy: Get Arts’, 1970. This Edinburgh Festival exhibition of Düsseldorf-based artists took over the College of Art. These photographs depict Palermo perched atop a very tall ladder on the ECA Main building staircase creating his Blue, Yellow, White, Red, a mural of horizontal band of primary colours near the ceiling in ECA’s Main Building. For more about this work, and the ‘Strategy: Get Arts’ exhibition, I recommend this book Strategy: get arts : 35 artists who broke the rules, which is available for loan at ECA Library.
Monika Baumgartl
Finally, perhaps the favourite piece of art for ECA students looking for a cozy place to study, is the grey upholstered arm-chair, a final project made by Laura Virtanen, BA Design & Applied Arts (Product Design) ECA, in 2009.
Laura Virtanen
Come and see these artworks and explore our collections the next time you are passing by West Port and Lady Lawson Street!
Guest post by Elise Ramsay, Edhelp Supervisor, ECA Library
Everyone at ECA Librarywould like to give a warm welcome to all our new students, and to our returning students too!
If you are a new student looking to collect your library ID card, please note that new students must book a timeslot to collect their card at the Main Library, George Square, as detailed here.
Find out more about ECA Library here, and take a look at our orientation guides for each library site.
Want to learn more about getting the best out of the library and its collections and services? Work your way through Libsmart1 and 2, at your own pace, on Learn essentials.
If you need a one to one appointment with your academic support librarian look on the MyEd events channel for an upcoming appointment and if none of the times available suit you, drop your academic support librarian an email.
Our display at ECA Library focuses on book works by artist Jane Hyslop, including a recent acquisition: The Oak Tree: a tribute to eternity.
Jane Hyslop: The Oak Tree: a tribute to eternity
Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando, a biography, and spanning over 700 years, The Oak Tree: a tribute to eternity weaves historical and contemporary fact with fiction, and marks the pivotal point at which we now find ourselves in the face of climate change and declining biodiversity. It follows Woolf’s groundbreaking novel in drawing attention to the very moment of the present, while urging us to look to the future.
Taking the form of an imagined visual edition of the manuscript the eponymous character writes throughout the novel, the artist’s book is accompanied by an introduction and notes written in collaboration with Professor Bryony Randall.
Other works featured in the display include Edinburgh: a visual handbook, 2007, and An Experiment, 2010.
This month’s issue of Library Updates highlights our work on the Library Wellbeing Collection, our new EdHelp enquiries chatbot, how to find yourself in the Library and much more!
Wellbeing Collection at Main Library, George Square
This is the third post in the Library in Focus series, exploring other libraries that could be useful to ECA students.
Today we look at the archive and library at Modern Two, part of the research facilities offered by the National Galleries of Scotland.
The reading room at Modern Two
The reading room at Modern Two is open by prior appointment Monday to Friday, 10am–1pm and 2pm–4.30pm.
The Library at Modern Two covers the history and theory of art from the early fourteenth century to the present. The library has around 100,000 items accessible in the Reading Room, including monographs, catalogues raisonnés, exhibition catalogues, periodicals, auction sales catalogues, audio-visual material, accession files and ephemera. The gallery accession files (sometimes referred to as dossiers) are a unique curatorial resource on every work in the collection, from Titian to Tanning.
The library has been developed to support research into the Collection and the holdings reflect this, with particular strengths in Scottish and European art, and Dada and Surrealism.
The Archive contains over 140 holdings relating to twentieth and twenty-first century artists, collectors and art organisations, and is particularly rich in papers relating to art and artists in Scotland. These include documents, drawings, sketchbooks, correspondence, photographs, textiles, artists’ materials and tools, diaries, newscuttings, audio-visual material and other printed ephemera. There are significant holdings on Eduardo Paolozzi, Joan Eardley and Richard Demarco.
The archive also includes primary materials of international importance in the Roland Penrose and Gabrielle Keiller collections of Dada and Surrealism.
Over 6,000 artists’ books and special books are also available to view in the Reading Room. This collection contains many of the most significant books by artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and includes a world class collection of Dada and Surrealist publications drawn from the book collections of Roland Penrose and Gabrielle Keiller.
To book a visit and find out more about the collections click here.
The Library has a new Wellbeing Collection which provides access to a range of relevant print and electronic resources for all University of Edinburgh staff and students.
The collection provides resources on all aspects of wellbeing, including but not limited to depression, exercise, general wellbeing, happiness, relationships, sleeping well and University life.
To launch our new collection we have a display of Wellbeing Collection books in the Main Library (30 George Square) which will be in place from now until the end of May 2024. All books in the display can be browsed and borrowed so please take a look at this fantastic new collection.
Wellbeing Collection at Main Library George Square
This is the second in a series of guest posts featuring other libraries (external to the University) that ECA students might find useful to visit. Today we are looking at the National Museums Scotland Library.
The NMS Library welcomes researchers, students and visitors to consult the library for reference use, Tuesdays to Fridays, 10am-4pm. Browse our online library catalogue to discover our historic and contemporary collections.
The Library reflects the strengths and variety of the Museum’s object collections and research interests. Anything ‘Available’ at the Research Library can be found at the time of your visit. If an item is at a location other than the Research Library, email ahead so the material can be ready in time for your visit: library@nms.ac.uk
The Research Library is accessible on Level 3 from the Technology by Design Gallery at the National Museum of Scotland. There are several thousand decorative and applied art books for visitors to browse, plus a display of 80 of our most regularly used journals, including The Burlington Magazine, Apollo and Arts in Asia, as well as journals of local arts societies. Many journals held in the Library’s stores are unique within Scotland, and can be requested in advance.
The Library has prominent archaeology and Scottish local history collections, and also excels in the natural sciences. World-wide art and design is the other main collecting strength with material covering everything from fashion, to jewellery and silverwork, to Japanese design and printmaking.
The institutional archive tells the story of the Museum and of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland whose historic library and archive are amalgamated with the Museums’. The Archive can be browsed using the Special Collections & Archives finding guides. The stand-out visual material includes the card index of the Scottish Life Archive (a document of Scottish agricultural and social life in the 20th century), the Daniel Wilson scrapbook (comprising sketches and cuttings of early 19th century Edinburgh’s old town), and the archive of textile historian Margaret Swain (records of textiles contained in Scottish private collections). The Library holds the Graham Gadd collection of 19th and early 20th century furniture ephemera and ceramics artist Majel Davidson’s papers, sketches and designs. There is also the advertising archive of Jenners, Scotland’s former, oldest department store.
To view Special Collections and Archives, complete this booking request form in advance.
This post was written by guest editor Jennifer Higgins of NMS Library.
A class of ECA students visiting the NMS Library in 2023
This is the first in a series of guest posts featuring other libraries (external to the University) that ECA students might find useful to visit. Today we are looking at the Art & Design Library, at Edinburgh Central Library, on George IV Bridge.
At Central Library’s Art & Design Library you can discover a fantastic set of resources relating to art, design and photography, along with wooden 1930s desks, and shelving that has stood the test of time. Enjoy our beautiful space for reading, studying and drawing and browse through our huge collection, covering various disciplines and art movements, from cave to the latest in contemporary art, as well as books on techniques from fashion illustration to lino-cutting.
Looking for exhibition space and events? We have a monthly programme of exhibitions from local artists and groups as well as a free programme of talks and workshops.
We hold a growing collection of artists’ books from artists working in Scotland as well as historic collections of Japanese art, children’s illustrated books and 19th century ornamental design books, and many other historic materials.
