When poem meets image

Andrew Lambirth

Wednesday, 27th May 2009

Andrew Lambirth talks to Douglas Dunn and Norman Ackroyd about their latest collaboration

Illustrated books are one of the glories of a library. Looking over my own shelves I find assorted delights ranging from The Story of My Heart, the unorthodox vision of the naturalist Richard Jefferies fittingly partnered with woodcuts by Ethelbert White, to David Gascoyne’s poems decorated rather sombrely by Graham Sutherland, and ‘The Traveller’ by Walter de la Mare, accompanied by colourful landscapes by John Piper. The pairings of writer and artist are often intriguing: Wyndham Lewis and Naomi Mitchison, William Beckford and Marion Dorn, Samuel Johnson and Edward Bawden. One of my favourites is an anthology called The Poet’s Eye, selected by Geoffrey Grigson and illustrated superbly by John Craxton. A more modest project altogether is the charming set of pamphlets produced in two series by Faber & Faber in the 1920s and 1930s and then in the 1950s, called the Ariel Poems. These brought together a single poem and an artist in often magical conjunction. I’m thinking of Paul Nash and A.E. (George Russell), John Nash and Wilfrid Gibson, and C. Day Lewis and Edward Ardizzone. Unforgettable.

I long for a publisher to produce something as enterprising and inexpensive today (the second series were priced at two shillings and came with an envelope ready to send to a loved one), but some of the most interesting current word and image collaborations are appearing at the other end of the market, up among the pricey limited editions. The Royal Academy of Arts has just published an extremely handsome book, pairing its leading printmaker Norman Ackroyd with the poet Douglas Dunn. The result is called A Line in the Water, and is a splendid large landscape format hardback of 159 pages, featuring 75 etchings by Ackroyd and 15 poems by Dunn. It’s available in three different editions: the standard is priced at £60, a limited edition containing a separate signed Ackroyd etching is £250, and the deluxe edition containing the etching and an extra signed volume of poems is £400. These prices suggest an appeal to print and fine book collectors, not to the general public. This is not the sort of volume to tuck into your pocket when off for a country ramble. Not unless you’ve got very long pockets.

1 | 2 | 3 Next page