Rachel Hazell - Paper

Book artist Rachel Hazell graduated in printmaking from Edinburgh College of Art in 2001.  She designs, writes, illustrates, prints, binds and exhibits book-related work and in the recent years she has started making large paper installations. 

After spending a month as artist-in-residence on an expedition ship in Antarctica she created a mixture of paper sculptures, framed bookworks and unique limited edition pieces for an exhibition called ‘Ice Bound: Antarctic Bookworks’ in the Casa Luna in Amsterdam in spring 2005.  For this she created tissue paper icebergs and developed ways to create ice shelves using traditional book binding techniques.

In 2004 she was commissioned to produce a 21st Birthday Book Sculpture for the Edinburgh Book Festival and she created the ‘Amygdala’ book sculpture for the Helen Storey Foundation in 2001.  She was selected for Chelsea Crafts Fair in 2002 and was artist-in-residence on Shetland in the same year.

She says “I am looking out for the worldwide possibilities for creative bookbinding workshops, and the chance to prove that everybody has a book inside them.”

She has developed her work with the assistance of a creative development award from the Scottish Arts Council.

She working a project to commemorate International Polar Year in 2008.

She was artist in residence at the Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris in 2006 an experience which concluded with an installation opening called ‘Playing with words/Jeux des mots’.

She is participating in The Cutting Edge exhibition which will open in the Museum of Scotland in 2007.

Find our more about her experiences in Antarctica in our craftscotland feature.

Contact Rachel