Homeward Bound or An Exercise in Collecting Beginnings By Lizzie Ridout

Lizzie Ridout, Pearson Creative Research Fellow at the British Library, launches Homeward Bound or An Exercise in Collecting Beginnings, an artist's book accompanied by a set of limited edition prints. This captivating loose-leaf publication is filled with annotated and illustrated memos, postcards, pamphlets and photographs which were inspired by the many fascinating items that can be found in the British Library's vast and diverse collections.

The Creative Research Fellowship, generously sponsored by Pearson, enables one creative practitioner a year to work within the British Library's Learning Team, researching in the collections, engaging with learners through workshops and making creative works.

Over the past year, Lizzie Ridout has been working as a 'domestic archaeologist', seeking out references to familiar and seemingly mundane objects that have unexpected and bizarre properties. Her Fellowship culminates with the publication of Homeward Bound or An Exercise in Collecting Beginnings. The design was inspired by a 'chapbook' (a seventeenth century cheap novel sold unstitched and untrimmed, to be constructed at home on the kitchen table) and reflects the eclectic nature of Ridout's research and findings. A loose-leaf publication, it is printed on various paper stocks and sizes, contained within a wrap-around sleeve. The unbound design seeks to stimulate the imagination of readers as they take their own unique journey through the book and encourages them to create their own narrative amongst the pages.

Both the book and the prints are currently on display in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery at the British Library, where Ridout's own work is exhibited alongside a selection of historical objects from the collections that simultaneously document the past whilst also presenting that past in the light of the present day.

Some of the British Library collection items unearthed by Lizzie during her Fellowship include references to electric dresses, tear-drop embroidered handkerchiefs, reversed heel shoes, boudoirs for exotic beauties, hair jewellery, morse-code ribbons, ghosts of stockings and moustache cups. A selection of these finds form an online digital sketchbook, Art Sparklets, which can be viewed on the British Library Learning website.

For more information, contact Ruth Howlett at the British Library Press Office: +44 (0)20 7412 7112 or ruth.howlett@bl.uk.

Editor's notes

• Homeward Bound or An Exercise in Collecting Beginnings by Lizzie Ridout, is published by the British Library, price £15.00 (ISBN 978 0 7123 4990 1). The book is available now from the British Library Bookshop (tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7735, fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7624, email: bl-bookshop@bl.uk).
• Lizzie Ridout is the fourth Pearson Creative Research Fellow at the British Library. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2002 and has since been involved in various commissioned and self-initiated projects, exploring the boundaries between graphic design, illustration and fine art. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and currently lectures in graphic design at University College Falmouth and the University of Plymouth.