Four parcels, four books – each beautifully illustrated with drawings and prints to inspire and guide the residents in their own creations to mark this challenging and unique time in our lives.
Week one is underway with a new project designed by Arts for Health artist Sarah Ruttle taking place in four Community Hospitals with eleven residents. Sarah has created a limited number of exquisite handmade artists books, a series of four for each participant; leaning on the concept of a scrap book for the resident to fill with their own writing, cut-outs and drawings. What makes this different from a scrap book is not only the contribution of a professional artists work, but the exchange and recording of a conversation between Sarah and the residents.
The project aims to mark this unique time in all our lives as Sarah explains, ‘I aim to share a series of limited edition books, to mark this unique time in our lives. Everyone’s lives have changed, as too perhaps our perspective, through this new lens.’
The residents receive the books by post and then are invited to a series of conversations by video call with Sarah, supported by staff. The residents taking part are all familiar with Sarah from previous projects so this is wonderful opportunity to re-connect for the participant, artist and the staff at the hospitals.
The staff are playing a vital role in keeping the arts project going, managing the parcel deliveries and translating and mediating the artists ideas with the residents. ‘I wasn’t sure at first how to interpret the work, but as each book arrives, the story unfolds’, said one member of Staff at Bantry General Hospital, St. Joseph’s Ward.
Images: Developing book ideas; Market Place Book III; People in our Lives Book I …by Sarah Ruttle