kate bernstein
​book artist
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 Books

The books shown here falls into three groups; those inspired by Paolo Uccello's fifteenth-century painting ​The Battle of San Romano, those inspired by research at the Royal Astronomical Society Library, London and  those that relate to other narratives. ​

Printer of Stars, ​2019
Images inspired by the elaborate 16th century book Astronomicum Caesareum are examined, separated & crumpled up to become the Sun, Moon and Earth. A celebration of the role of printing in astronomical debates and discoveries.
Screenprint & hand coloured, edition of 20. 10.8 x 12cm
The Typographical Planet, ​2019
The Typographical Planet, 2019.
A celebration of astronomers sharing information in print; here concerning Saturn.The typographical depiction of Saturn in the crow’s beak is based on Galileo’s first telescopic observation of the planet, printed 1613.The crow is derived from an engraving of the constellation Corvus in Bayers’ star atlas, Uranometria 1603.The book folds out form the centre with comets racing across the back pages.
Screenprint, edition of 20. 14.5 x 13.5cm
The Infinite M, ​2019
 The Infinite M, 2019.
Inspired by a 16th century image, of tiny star-like shapes with the letter M for Mundi (Earth), printed beside one of them.
This image signified that the Earth was not at the centre of the Universe, but one planet of many, a radical review of the previous position.
Screenprint, edition of 20. 14.5 x 10cm
Pomegranate, ​2018
Pomegranate. Inspired by Uccello's use of pomegranates within The Battle of San Romano to both create and decorate a plane at the front of the image. this book is an exploration of spatial incongruity and of narrative assumptions. Space within an image is implied by line and by plane. A pomegranate, an image of a pomegranate, sits on a solid surface, or maybe not.
​Screenprint, bound in flexible cover with leather spine. One unique book & edition of three sets of prints.
The Light of My Life, ​2018
The Light of My Life, a screenprinted concertina, follows the stages of life in the form of lights. From the match strike of conception, the birthday candle of infancy, to the teenage light of an iphone, the multi-armed candelabra of middle age, to the flame of a night light in old age and the final extinguished match. Edition of 20, raised covers in either red or ochre.
My Dear Frankenstein, ​2018
My Dear Frankenstein  This flag book explores the tensions in Shelley's Frankenstein between the monstrous Frankenstein, who creates without responsibility, and the created monster. The images and colours evoke the landscape of the novel's setting. Created for ​Frankenstein 2018 Book Art Exhibition in Liverpool and Knowsley. A unique book  with leather labels is now in a private collection in the Netherlands, there is also a small edition of 7 with bookcloth binding.Digital and screen print.
Love and Toothache, 2017
Picture
Love and Toothache  is a first aid kit for the Wife of Bath. A Medieval cure for toothache and a love poem  are given a contemporary twist with screen printed images and text. In a soft leather binding with inlaid Middle English and lines that reference the manuscript guide lines used by scribes. The vellum case is screen printed with an image of the Wife's Prologue taken from a1561 Chaucer. The whole fits into a box with a raised image of the Wife of Bath. This book was made in response to the Bodleian Library competition, Redesigning The Medieval Book and was on display at the Bodleian's Weston Library until March 2018 and then at UWE's Library until June 2018.
Confined to the Library, 2017
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 Confined to the Library, presented to the Vice Chancellor of Bristol University, was commissioned by academics from Bristol University to celebrate libraries and the  physicality of the book. The embossed box with screen printed leather label suggests books both absent and present. The book has two folios bound on either side of a central column of raised flags, each of which is printed with the name of a library. The image on the folded  column and base of the flags is the exposed spine of the text block  of a 16th century book, the pages of which have been cut out. The folios suggest the practice of having several books open simultaneously while researching. Coloured shapes within the folios suggest book spines, the text on these spines was provided by the academics who commissioned the work.
The Sphere, 2017. ​
The Sphere –a playful exploration of the relationship between the mathematical definition of a sphere, a round object or surface on which every point is equidistant from its centre, and a loose narrative of equality created from the letters within the word sphere.
Edition of 16, each in slipcase with glassine screenprinted front, and red or grey bookcloth over raised circle on rear. 
Screenprint on Somerset Satin.15 x 14.5cm
The Painter's Daughter, 2017. 
Prompted by Vasari's description of Uccello's anonymous daughter, who could paint and draw, and the practice of referring to daughters as 1d in Who's Who, this screnprinted book is an exploration in image and text of the power of the daughter.  Screen print on Somerset Satin, 13.5 x 14.cm Edition of 10.
Uccello, 2017.
 An insight into the narrative of The Battle of San Romano, capturing imagery from key points of the painting and relating them to texts from relevant sources. 18 x 12cm. Screen print on Simili Japon. Standard binding card, unique bindings bookcloth and leather. Edition of 15
Uccello's Formula, 2016. ​Three unique screen printed  books which engage with, and pay homage to, Uccello's methodology.
Picture
Uccello's Formula (II), 2016.
Folio for Uccello's Formula (II) ,  book cloth and leather.
 Uccello's Formula (I), 2016.  Screen print and collage.
Picture
 Uccello's Formula, Siena (III), ​2016. 
Two Sides to Every Story, ​2016.
Uccello's Beautiful Battle, 2016.
Beautiful Battle reflects the dichotomy between Uccello’s lavish, decorative and bloodless painting and the reality of battle. Modernist abstract shapes echo the progress of the soldiers in the painting.
Screenprint on Simili Japon , 2 unique books bound in bookcloth. 32 x 24cm
Uccello's Woman, 2015/16
Picture
The Great Fire of London, 1666. 2016
Hand cut relief prints bound with wood and leather, embossed title. Images follow a narrative from 17th-century London and old St Paul’s to Wren’s St Paul’s and the skyline of London today. Large 34 x 27cm  Small 22 x 17cm
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Smaller scale The Great Fire of London, 1666. 2017. One of three simplified versions, each a unique hand cut book.
Winter for David,​ 2014/5.
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