Lino Printing Workshop: Reading Kew Gardens with a Carving Tool

This workshop invites participants to engage with book illustration in theory and practice, using the example of Virginia Woolf’s short story Kew Gardens, first published in 1919 with two woodcuts by Vanessa Bell and again in 1927 in a new edition featuring ‘decorations’ by the same artist. 

Through a discussion of Bell’s artistic interventions in Woolf’s text, participants are encouraged to consider book illustration not simply as a derivative practice that aims to reproduce the meaning of the written text, but rather – in the words of Roger Fry – as a ‘running commentary, like marginal notes written by a reader,’ that opens up a dialogue between artist and author. 

Following Fry’s notion of the illustrator as an ‘inaudible’ reader, the workshop participants are then invited to produce their own ‘reading’ of Woolf’s story through the medium of lino print. Using carving tools, ink, scissors and glue, participants will create their own responses to Woolf’s text, illustrating, decorating, and re-arranging the author’s words to create new meanings.

All materials required for the workshop will be provided. Participants should read and think about the following texts in advance of the workshop: 

• Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens (1919), with woodcuts by Vanessa Bell
• Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens (1927), with decorations by Vanessa Bell
• Excerpts from Roger Fry, 'The Author and the Artist'