Letterpress edition of The Cycle

The third edition of The Cycle, my novel without words, is now available to purchase.

The narrative of  The Cycle is told within 187 engraved blocks, and the book uses a total of 200 engraved blocks. Each block took one day to engrave, with several months of drawing & preparation to reach that stage.   The Cycle took me 2 years to complete and I made only 12 copies, hand printed and bound by myself, for the first edition .. 

This third edition of The Cycle, a collaboration between Richard Lawrence and myself, has been printed letterpress by Richard and professionally bound in an edition of 126 copies ..

it is available now to purchase for £125 plus p+p. Please contact for further details, thank you.

The Cycle completed..?

An ambitious project from start to finish, The Cycle, a novel told in 187 engravings, was conceived in 2005. Inspired by my experiences working for a small charity, The Cycle follows in the tradition of novels in woodcuts where hand-cut images replace text as the narrative form. The narrative follows a couples' struggle to bring up two children on low wages whilst dealing with the realisation that their lives do not match up with what is presented to them. The brothers end up repeating their parents' mistakes but after a chance intervention, one brother begins to make different choices and starts to change his life ...  The narrative is told within 187 engraved blocks, and the book uses a total of 200 engraved blocks. Each block took one day to engrave, with several months of drawing and preparation to reach that stage.  The Cycle took me 2 years to complete and I made only 12 copies, hand printed and bound by myself, for the first edition.

EDITIONS
1st edition 2007

In 2007 the artists' first edition of 12 copies was completed, hand bound & hand printed by the artist.

2nd edition 2010

In 2010 The Cycle was commercially published in a litho edition and retitled by the American publisher as  "Walking Shadows: A Novel Without Words. This edition is currently for sale.

 

3rd edition 2013  

The Cycle was printed letterpress by Richard Lawrence in 2012 then bound and published in 2013. This edition is currently available for sale priced at £125...

Please contact Inky Fingers Press for details

Super 8 - Collections: A Load of Old Cameras

New engraving...
Frontispiece for my small book of cameras "Collections: A Load of Old Cameras"

Super 8 
Collecting, recording, documenting!
Engraved limited edition print by Neil Bousfield
Image size(mm) 120w x 120h
Frontispiece for "Collections: A Load of Old Cameras"

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2013: What a relief!

Click Click: A Small Book of Cameras - cover image
Engraved print by Neil Bousfield
Image size(mm) 90w x 90h

I have been working on a set of designs for a handmade book of prints: “Click Click: A Small Book of Cameras” and finally completed engraving the 35^th block at the end of December, somewhere between the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. Each design will be printed directly from the original engraved block, by the artist (me) using a Vandercook proofing press. My small book of cameras will contain 30 engravings, printed end papers, a title page, page of text about the project and colophon page. This limited edition book will measure (mm) 120w x 170h and each copy will be signed.

Dead but not buried - engraving

Dead but not buried
Engraved limited edition print by Neil Bousfield
From forthcoming illustrated book without words "Alfred Brown: A Life in Pictures"
Image size(mm) 150w x 240h

A small book of cameras - 22 engraved blocks

22 engraved blocks are now completed for my small book of cameras...

Engraved book: A small book of cameras - update

Progress is going reasonably well - with 14 blocks now engraved... pictures to follow

Published work - reviews

The Cycle 2nd edition - published as  

Walking Shadows: A Novel Without Words

REVIEWS:
"Poignant and provocative... this is a masterwork of the wordless novel that leaves us speechless. Every reader will enjoy hours of contemplative deliberation over Bousfield's remarkable printmaking skill and vivid creative passion." - George Walker, author of Graphic Witness.

"Neil Bousfield displays astonishing skill as a wood engraver with fine lines and amazing detail in a riveting story of dramatic intrigue and mystery. Like the brilliant woodcut novels by Lynd Ward and Frans Masereel, you will return to Bousfield's stunning novel without words again and again, and discover further gems of surprise and wonder. This visual treasure is storytelling and printmaking at its best!" -  
David A. Berona, author of Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels.

"It seems appropriate that Bousfield is revisiting a novel type that was born with Lynd Ward’s groundbreaking Gods’ Man, published the very week of the Great Crash of 1929. In 2010’s economy, Bousfield seems to be competing not only with Ward but with Ward’s Great Depression circumstances—a tall task for a first book, but Bousfield holds his own. In addition to its simple narrative (fairly common to the genre), Walking Shadows boasts exceptional standalone prints; Bousfield, an engraver, is able to produce finer lines and more fully rendered work than a woodcutter might. (The difference involves how the wood blocks the artist employs were cut—with or across the grain.) There are many memorable images in Walking Shadows, including those of the mother mopping floors alone at Pack It & Wrap It. In one she’s moving a pail with her foot, in a gesture of futility and exhaustion; in another she seems to be washing away the shadows. There are also excellent exterior depictions throughout—including the father’s death scene and a single overhead shot of the housing complex where the family lives—and they are among the most striking images in the novel. Altogether, these pages are worth reading, then putting aside and revisiting, if only to admire Bousfield’s engraved prints for the fine one-off pieces of art that they are." -
Reviewed By Kevin Nolan (To read the full review visit: The Rumpus)

To purchase a copy visit Amazon.co.uk , Amazon.com , or you can order a copy from any good bookshop: ISBN-13:978-1-933149-29-5

A small book of cameras

To break up the long haul of my book "Alfred Brown: A Life in Pictures", I have set about on a small(er), shorter project - "Click Click: A Small Book of Cameras" a book containing 30 of my engraved images of individual cameras with a further 5 engraved images to make up the design for the end papers. Each block measures 60(mm)w x 60(mm)h. Progress is going well and I have engraved 7 blocks so far ..

Feet of Clay - Page Illustration

I was pleased to be commissioned by Joe McCann in 2011 to provide an illustration for the title page of a beautifully bound, limited edition publication of Feet of Clay by poet Paul Muldoon.. 

(Images: Black Cat Bindery)

Limited edition of FEET OF CLAY by Paul Muldoon
Designed and printed by John Grice, Evergreen Press, Gloucestershire, in 16pt Lutetia on Magnani paper, bound by Black Cat Bindery, Somerset
Published by Four Candles Press, Oxford
Engraving by Neil Bousfield

(Images: Black Cat Bindery)

Description by Black Cat Bindery: "Bound by Black Cat Bindery, Somerset in yellow ochre Morocco goatskin spine with black sides. Black leather label cut at an angle and gold title running down the spine. The leather spine has also been cut at an angle to echo Neil Bousfields engraving."

Engraving by Neil Bousfield
Image size (mm) 95w x 115h

Further details from:

Joe McCann

Four Candles Press

76 Oliver Road

Oxford

OX4 2JJ

Tel: (07971) 040507

email: joe@maggs.com

Book project in progress

Alfred Brown: A Life in Pictures

"Alfred Brown: A Life in Pictures" (the working title) is being engraved on plastic blocks about 9 ½ x 6”. It follows its protagonist from the age of 7 in the late 1940s to his death around the present day. It is all story-boarded out but not drawn up in pages yet. There will be between 1 and 4 images (usually 2) on each block, allowing variety of pace. Neil expects to engrave around 400 blocks with 750 images on them. He does not know how long it will take. He has to try to make a living meanwhile. Amazingly, he finds time to make other prints as well. Alfred Brown explores the wider ideas of values and what we consider to be a useful and productive life. It is an attempt to understand what we are all doing, running around. There are no answers provided, just description. Neil himself, having ‘run around’ the whole gamut of modern technologies, has realised that a passionate concern with narrative lies at the heart of what he wants to do and that the engraver’s marks are the best means of doing it." Excerpt written by Simon Brett for the exhibition: Bewick’s Legacy: Six Contemporary British Wood Engravers
  

Started in 2008,  "Alfred Brown: A Life in Pictures" is a novel without words based on the fictional life of Alfred Brown. The story unfolds through hundreds of engraved images from childhood to adulthood, old age and death scene. Due to the large scale of this work, I aim to produce and publish this book in three volumes.  A selection of the engravings I have completed so far ...

Example pages from the book "Alfred Brown: A Life in Pictures"
Engraved prints by Neil Bousfield
Image size(mm) 150w x 240h