Books
Handbooks on Art and Community,
Children's Books, Poetry John Fox Sue Gill
FUNERAL Cremation/Burials Dead Good Funerals Book signed copies from experts John Fox Sue Gill
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Click on "Buy now fom Amazon" in the list below, by the title that
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Celebratory events in the community. Radical ideas and Inspiration. Practical guides to planning a personalised funeral or baby naming ceremony. Poems for occasions, illustrated with original woodcuts.
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YOU NEVER KNOW a collection of poems for occasions by John Fox
It's been a long time coming but here it is at last - ' Foraging like a magpie for images from Barcelona to B&Q, he creates delicate elegies, rumbustious monologues and political rants. You Never Know is a rattling recollection of sad tales, firecracker events and sudden celebratory moments'. Published June 2011.
YOU NEVER KNOW £7.50 postage free in UK
The belief is that poetry should be a common activity, not some rarified pursuit remote from our workaday lives; the poetic should be everyday, the everyday poetic ..... the verse is well-crafted and accessible. John Fox continues to be one of the North's most valuable [if not always most valued] treasures and his passion for a 'real' and vibrant culture, as against ersatz mindless pap, sounds a brave if sometimes lonely note. Peter Mortimer 20th August 2011 THE JOURNAL Newcastle upon Tyne
..... ' all manner of wonders discovered on their journey and lovingly brought home.'
I have been an ardent admirer and INSPIRED by John and Sue's work since the late 60s. So frankly anything from them is a thrill. This lovely book of poems is especially wonderful. It gives a picture of the enchanted life they lead on the beach at Morecambe and fills you with nature and myth and and stories and the honouring thereof and blessed children and grandchildren and animals and all manner of wonders
discovered on their journey and lovingly brought home. The book is an essential aid to the inspiration of our souls. If you live in a big city it's frighteningly easy to let the bright soul fade and for confusion and despair to take over. John and Sue are shamans (and also very funny) and by heavens we need them. There is a beautiful poem called The Ultimate Abode of the Just which is the OU dictionary definition of paradise. Read just that and your soul will come alive. And that's just for starters. I hope I make it to the Ultimate Abode of the Just. I know the Morecambe Bay shamans will be there (with all their shaman family) stirring up a bonfire, playing accordions, skipping by the sea.
Patrick Barlow, Chief Executive National Theatre of Brent
Garden in the Sky - new book for children Spring 2011
' It's very jolly - a lovely way to encourage interest in wildflowers with children '
Tiffany Daneff, Gardening Editor SAGA magazine
an enchanting little gift from green grandparents everywhere
SUE GILL and JOHN FOX £3.50 UK postage free
'a very sweet little book with a lot of charm'...... Stephen Lennon ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
With 14 full colour illustrations it is an imaginative and ecological story about plants and flowers through the escapades of a girl and her grandfather's grass roof. The true names of the plants in this magical story, set on the shoreline of a Cumbrian peninsula, are included plus facts about the local environment – shrimp and cockle fishing, tides and treacherous sandflats out in the bay.
Created by artists in their studio by the sea, this little book is for children 8 – 10 years. Retail price £3.50, bookseller discounts available for orders. Available direct from the authors, or via Neilsen BookData listings and on Amazon.
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Engineers of the Imagination
By - Baz Kershaw and Tony Coult, Methuen, 1983, revised 1990
A book to get thumbmarks and glue on, it explains the basic techniques of Welfare State International's work - the making of processions; large scale puppets; fixed structures; fire and ice technology; processional, theatre and dance music, celebratory food and feasts and much more. Still the definitive work on art in the community.
£12.99 postage free in UK
The Dead Good Book of Namings and Baby Welcoming Ceremonies
£6.99 postage free in UK
Though in today's society christenings are
no longer as commonplace, there is still a need to formally welcome
a new person into the world.
This book shows you how to design and organise your own ceremony
in a way that is meaningful to you.
The Dead Good Funerals Book
£12.50 postage free in UK
Challenging, practical and crammed with
powerful anecdotes, which will enable you
to design a ceremony either for yourself,
or for a loved one. Whatever
your faith or belief system there's something for you
here. See Funerals Book page.
DEAD CATALOGUE - collectors' item 2001
£10 postage free in UK
The DEAD exhibition, commissioning new funeral artefacts, opened at
The Round House in London before touring to Cumbria. Includes the work of
Gavin Turk, Hussain Chalayan, Bob & Roberta Smith, George Shaw, Tord Boontje
and a dozen more designers/artists responding to the subject of death.
The Dead Good Time Capsules Book
£6.50.postage free in UK
Everything you need
to know to create a successful time capsule.
Practical advice and accounts of actual projects, planning
and creation, artists visions, destiny and materialism
- and - the odd spaceship.
Eyes on Stalks
£14.99 postage free in UK
An autobiographical roller coaster through three decades of wild inventions.
From in London `Raising the Titanic' to `King Lear' on a Japanese ski slope
the Eyes on Stalks covers the principal and practice of site specific theatre,
extensive community residencies and new rites of passage. It brings `Engineers
of the Imagination' up to date and is a hands on tract
revealing Welfare State's radial philosophyof Art . Lavishly illustrated with 30 photographs, scripts and over 100 drawings
from John Fox's sketch book. it is an exciting and provocative
manual.
EYES ON STALKS is a book you must read - wise, committed and beautifully written. Not too misty eyed.
The title comes from WSI's old slogan 'Eyes on Stalks, not bums on Seats', and at the end of the introduction
Fox gives his own kind of blessing: 'May your eyes wobble in their sockets, your creative juices boil over
and your bum never ache'. Sideshow -Contemporary Circus Magazine June 2011
"Thanks to John Fox and his merry men and women, the welfare of theatre in general is in a much better state and all the richer for their innovative approach. Read this book and you willl be able to stand on
the shoulders of a truly eccentric giant and see where he is coming from."
Ted Turton. Youth Drama Ireland.
"WSI have maintained their name and their principles of cultural activism. Having provided the reader with such a rich entertaining book, Fox could be forgiven a political rant.His final chapter, however is not an angry tirade but a thoughtful passionate call for the use of the arts for cultural change and the power of the artist as a creative catalyst."
Emma Govan. Contemporary Theatre Review.
READ THIS BOOK!, 1 Dec 2003
Amazon Customer Review
"A must for anyone working, or thinking of working, in the community arts area and indeed anyone working in theatre of any sort. Fox's honest and frank style is refreshing and the knowledge that even the best have their problems is comforting.
I found it one of those books that, once I had read it, I spent my whole time recommending it to everyone I know... It would warm the heart of the most devout cynic"! Eilís Nic Dhonncha (Co. na Gaillimhe, Ireland)
Ground
£5 postage free in UK
Poems, woodcuts and linocuts by John Fox, pub. 1998 by Engineers of the Imagination. Edited by Gilly Adams. Designed by Tanya Peixoto and Dot Queen.
Beautifully produced, large format 21 x 23 cm , with 30 pages of strong poetry and images. Printed on heavy art paper, GROUND makes an ideal gift.
published 2009
New Ground Lost Seeds
£5 postage free in UK
payable by cheque to Sue Gill The Beach House Swinestead Lane Baycliff LA12 9RY Cumbria
published in partnership with 
Mayo County Council
A 10 day arts and ecology project in West of Ireland, set in a therapeutic horticulture centre where associate artists Martin Brockman and Dan Fox worked with Dead Good Guides and Mayo Artsquad in May 2008 to involve local community artists in workshops designed to ask questions about Vernacular Art today. Book design Tim Jackson.
I have wolfed the book down .... Reading John's piece "a new role for the artist" is inspirational - and puts into words what I have been striving to articulate for ages. He's so right about artists having been "hi-jacked" ! Been there, done that and despaired. The relief in seeing these ideas written down not only refuels my dwindling energy reserves but also somewhat salvages my sanity ..... Andrew Kitchen
It's a beautifully designed book and the project it describes sounds amazing. Reading it was inspiring and gave me some badly needed hope. Clarke Mackay Head Dept of Film and Media Queens University Canada
A wonderful creative project & such a well produced book too Jo Ellsworth Univ of Bristol Theatre Collection
A lovely book - your lost and found project - inspirational steps in the future Septimia Kuhlmann community artist Holland
Boardwalk Books UK
A series of small, nearly hand made books in limited editions.
Some with
occasional remedies (practical poems) and some with stories for children.
Rock in the Sea. STOP PRESS New Edition. New text and additional woodut.
For 3 to 8 year olds.
£5.00 postage free in UK
is a fable by Sue Gill about an isolated limestone rock on the west shore of Morecambe Bay. Illustrated with woodcuts by John Fox. 26 pp, 10.5cm x 15cm.
Meanwhile
All publications continue to be available BY CHEQUE.
Send us your address and cheque payable to SUE GILL to the address at the foot of the page.