projects

2002

Seven Short Walks - Grizedale, Cumbria

Seven Short Walks was produced as the result of a residency at Grizedale in the English Lake District. The book was inspired by the following quote from Ruskin's 'Modern Painters', and time spent on the hills above Lake Coniston contemplating the extremes of scale present in the landscape:

“The fineness of Nature’s work is so great, that, into a single block, a foot or two in diameter, she can compress as many changes of form and structure, on a small scale, as she needs for her mountains on a large one; and taking moss for forests, and grains of crystal for crags, the surface of a stone is more interesting than the surface of an ordinary hill.’

John Ruskin - Modern Painters (Volume IV Chapter XVIII)

Inspired by the work of John Ruskin,the language of guidebooks and the extreme scales of distance and time. A set of route cards was produced along with an accompanying magnifying glass. The work gives visitors to Grizedale Forest the opportunity to explore the area in a new way and provides a counterpoint to the massive scale of the surrounding mountains.

The route cards help the reader to discover the overlooked world of bryophytes and lichens. The book also becomes a celebration of the work of Ruskin, and the fact that he found more enjoyment crawling around looking at these microscopic lifeforms than marvelling at the surrounding mountainscape.

Seven Short Walks is available for sale.

http://www.grizedale.org