PROCESS
A working camera obscura, housing the box's contents
REMEMBERING TOGETHER FIFE
PROCESS
PROCESS is a bespoke publication, written, designed and hand-fabricated to mark Fife's co-created response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Housed inside a working camera obscura, it was conceived to inspire connection, reflection, renewal and hope. A limited edition of 500 was created by the Artist and gifted to civic spaces across the whole of Fife.
In 2022, Greenspace Scotland, supported by Scottish Government funding, launched Remembering Together, a nationwide initiative commissioning artists in every local authority to co-create meaningful responses to the pandemic alongside their communities.
I was privileged to be selected as the Lead Artist for Fife. Through community engagement, people expressed a desire for a positive legacy rooted in wellbeing, landscape and accessible creative activity.
Two years later, following approximately 50 creative workshops and the gifting of 650 Botanical Ink & Anthotype Kits, the final result is PROCESS: a boxed publication housed inside a working camera obscura, containing two handbound books - INLOOK & OUTLOOK - alongside hand-fabricated artworks and tools designed to inspire connection, reflection and renewal.
PROCESS is a limited edition of 500, with each element designed and hand-fabricated by the Artist using carefully chosen, sustainable materials. The editions were gifted to civic spaces across Fife, with copies also held in the Fife in Lockdown Archive Collection at Kirkcaldy Galleries and OnFife, the Remembering Together Archive at the University of Stirling, and The Leven Programme’s community time-capsule project.
What's inside
Each PROCESS artwork consists of:
INLOOK
A handbound book offering a project overview
OUTLOOK
A handbound book illustrating simplified 'how-to' instructions of the processes explored during community engagement
LIBRARY of LANDSCAPE
A catalogue of Botanical Inks created from Fife’s Landscapes during the project
FLORIOGRAPHY of FIFE
Exploring the hidden language and symbolism of flowers observed while retracing lockdown walks
CONNECT
Paint-Your-Own Postcards made from cotton fibre for creating botanical inks and anthotypes, encouraging personal expression
ROOT
8 packets of organic wildflower seed varieties & associated floriography meanings, inspiring reflection, growth and renewal
HIDDEN COMPARTMENT
Brushes, glass vials, a pipette, cloves and a foraged shell palette/inkwell for making botanical inks
Two handbound books
INLOOK & OUTLOOK
Two handbound books, page by page
Below, you can explore the pages of INLOOK and OUTLOOK, two handbound books documenting Fife’s collaborative response to this project. The titles themselves offer a nod to Patrick Geddes’ Camera Obscura in Edinburgh, where originally an ‘outlook’ room for observation was complemented by an ‘inlook’ room for quiet reflection.
INLOOK shares our collaborative journey, inviting contemplation of our place within the landscape, while OUTLOOK provides simplified, ‘how-to’ instructions for mindful creative processes, encouraging further engagement and discovery. Both books were Litho printed onto paper made from hemp - totalling 1000 copies - each one individually scored, folded, handbound and pressed by the artist.
The complete book
INLOOK
Scroll through all 62 pages.
The complete book
OUTLOOK
Scroll through all 62 pages.
LIBRARY of LANDSCAPE
Botanical Inks created using food scraps from community meal events and workshops using materials foraged from Fife’s landcape, Litho printed onto paper made from hemp.
FLORIOGRAPHY of FIFE
The meanings and symbolism associated with plants, shared and annotated whilst retracing walks from lockdown with community members, Litho printed onto paper made from hemp
ROOT
A Seed Wallet containing 8 organic wildflower varieties, alongside their meanings in floriography, made with paper created from spent brewer’s grain.
Each packet allows you to sow an area of 1sqm. Paper seed packets & stickers are 100% biodegradable.
CONNECT
A set of ‘paint-your-own’ postcards, suitable for botanical inks & anthotypes, 100% cotton fibre.
Glass vials to store botanical inks & anthotype emulsions, cloves to preserve, brushes, a glass pipette, a shell inkwell/palette (not pictured) foraged from Fife’s Coastline.
Co-Creating with Communities across Fife
A selection from two years of creative engagement across Fife - approximately 50 free and accessible public workshops, community meals, gifting of 650 Botanical Ink & Anthotype Kits and a community exhibition, gathering the communities' reflections, ideas and interactions that led to the final PROCESS artwork.
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INLOOK & OUTLOOK
Binding the books
After writing INLOOK & OUTLOOK, the pages were grouped into strips and Litho printed onto beautiful hemp fibre paper.
Each accordion-style book required me to carefully score and fold 64 pages by hand, attach the covers, and glue the pages together before pressing overnight in my cherished antique book press - a 30th birthday gift from my mother.
A writer, she instilled in me a deep love of books, which sparked my curiosity to learn bookbinding in my early 20s. It was her unwavering commitment to those she loved that inspired this approach.
Binding 1000 copies of INLOOK and OUTLOOK by hand became a personal act of remembrance, a way to channel my grief from losing her just 10 years later during the first wave of lockdown, and this process became an odyssey.
While I recognise this pales in comparison to the immense sacrifices, endurance, and impact of so many during that time, the simple act of handcrafting each book - 64,000 scores and folds later - felt like a small way I could personally give back and honour the resilience of my Mum and the community we shared here in Fife.
Fabricating 500 bespoke artworks
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