Kahikatea Butter Book

Coptic stitched book - Linocut, collagraph on paper and paper vellum. Sits inside a tracing paper container.

"Earlier this year, while researching the history of the demise of the once mighty Kahikatea forests of New Zealand, I dreamt up an idea for an artist's book that would (hopefully) communicate some of the story behind the rapid destruction of these forests around the turn of last century. This has been a slow percolation of ideas requiring much research and having to learn how to achieve the result I was after.

My concept was for this book to represent a block of butter to reflect how the timber was so suited to being made into butter boxes. When refrigerated shipping was developed in 1882, allowing dairy products to be shipped "home" to the UK, Kahikatea timber became in high demand. As a soft, pale and importantly, odourless wood, it was perfect for transporting butter."