The Wild Pansy Press
BRITISH BOOK OF VIOLENCE
Call for Contributors
Britain has a long and distinguished history of violence - in this we
are like any other nation; however, it has been argued that we inflict
it on ourselves and on others with particular enthusiasm and efficiency.
The way this history is manifested is specific, violence being part of
our national identity. The British brand of violence informs our art,
our humour our politics, our sexual habits and our social identities.
Its present threat underwrites political and social hegemonies and
haunts our dreams; we laugh with relief at our escape when it is
inflicted on someone else; we turn it inwards on ourselves in
spectacular cycles of addiction, abuse and self-hatred. Our artists
and writers inflict violence on materials, ideas and language (and
sometimes on themselves) as an intrinsic part of the creative process.
What are the particular forms in which our national history of
violence is manifested through language and culture?
WPP invites artists’ and writers‘ initial outline responses to the
idea of British Violence - historical, political, sexual, ritual,
comical, subliminal, practical, institutional... we would particularly
welcome material from non-british contributors either resident or
offering a view from “outside”.
WPP will work with the selected contributors to produce work to be
included in the second* of an ongoing series of themed group
publications in which the editors at WPP act as curators and
animateurs to develop publications which extend and confound the usual
notions of the book.
We are looking for: visuals of all kinds, instructional projects,
games, short texts of any kind (notional maximum 2000 words) - works
of fiction, fact or any combination of the two. We need to receive
proposals and expressions of interest by September 30th 2010, with a
view to completion by December 30th and publication in early 2011.
Contact: info@wildpansypress.com
www.wildpansypress.com
*The Wild Pansy Press is a collective art practice which also
functions as a small publishing house. Our most recently-completed
project is the ‘Wild Pansy Press Book of Rainy Day Activities’, a
compilation of instructional projects from an international roster of
artists and other contributors, distributed as four A2 sheets to be
folded into a 64-page book. Like many of our projects, it was
distributed free as part of an exhibition and later through our website.
WPP is based in the School of Fine Art at the University of Leeds and
has built up a considerable catalogue of books and projects exploring
and advancing publication in its widest sense as both a distributional
strategy and medium of practice. Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
