Joe Devlin: Bookmarks at The Portico Library

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
Image courtesy Joe Devlin. Bookmarks by Matthew Houlding and Greg Thomas.

Joe Devlin: A collection of modified bookmarks at The Portico Library, Chinatown 16 August — 5 October 2024 Entrance is free — Visit now

We love a library, we ain’t gonna lie, so when we heard that Joe Devlin’s modified bookmarks had found a home in the pop-up display area of the Portico, well…

Joe Devlin is a fan of things like dog ears (turning the paper down as a page-holder) and inclusions (the ephemera found in books – see author Nicholas Royle‘s most recent tome Shadow Lines for more on this).

Devlin is behind North Manchester-based independent press Nuts and Bolts, which aims to publish “books that, in some way, reference the physicality of the printed object. Utilising the book, and the language often associated to describe/define them, as triggers for new publications”. In other words, his interest is in materiality as a source of content, from faded covers to altered endpapers, marginalia and graffitied pages to re-appropriated content. Nuts and Bolts (N. B.) creates publications that employ all these – it also creates bookmarks.

Completely unsolicited, the writer Michael Hampton (The White Review, Art Monthly, Frieze, Shearsman) recently returned a modified N. B. bookmark to Devlin, which prompted the publisher to contact a further 22 artists with the request to each modify a bookmark.

Artists from around the globe have responded to the callout, including Claudia de la Torre (back bone books, Berlin), David Bellingham (Wax 366, Glasgow), David Osbaldeston, Nina Chua, Daniella Watson Hughes and Matthew Houlding. The collection also features pieces by some of our favourite concrete poets and vispo practitioners Derek Beaulieu (No press, Canada), Greg Thomas (of the ‘Candle Poems’) and Imogen Reid (Rossi Contemporary).

While you’re there, do take the time to look at the Weird as Folk exhibition, which is rather wonderful, too.

Joe Devlin: A collection of modified bookmarks at The Portico Library, Chinatown 16 August — 5 October 2024 Entrance is free Visit now

What's on at The Portico Library

Where to go near Joe Devlin: Bookmarks at The Portico Library

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Carcanet online book launch: Father’s Father’s Father by Dane Holt

Please join us to celebrate the launch of Father’s Father’s Father by Dane Holt. The reading will be hosted by Caroline Bird. The event will feature readings and discussion, and audience members will have the opportunity to ask their own questions. We will show the text during readings so that you can read along. Registration for this online event will cost £2, redeemable against the cost of the book. You will receive the discount code and instructions for how to purchase the book in your confirmation email as well as during and after the event.

from £2.00

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