By: McDOWALL, Nicolas (1937-2021)

Acq. Number: 726

Dimensions: 22 cm

Artwork_Medium: limited edition (of 125) artist's book by Old Stile Press

Purchased: 2002

Buyer: WAKELIN, Dr Peter

Location: Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum and Galleries

Town: Aberystwyth

Content: This is among a handful of projects by the Old Stile Press in which Nicolas McDowall designed the book, wrote the text and created the images. It is a meditation upon one of the old stone walls that can still be traced through the woods above the home of the Press at Llandogo in the Wye Valley. 'The interlocking stones and the shadows between them form patterns which I found I could contemplate timelessly and I imagined somehow that great truths were for the unlocking.' Thirty-six close-up images of the wall, based on photographs, are bleached out and abstracted, revealing the wall's chinks and crevices, its jigsaw puzzle form, and the shapes and textures of the ancient stones. The cover paper made at the Press by the late Frances McDowall completes the book as a striking and beguiling object.