Cigarettes, Beer and Love

We’ve made a little book. We don’t quite know just yet what it’s going to look like. It’s a collaboration between several artists and has taken us months to produce and we’re getting very excited about seeing it. Working with Tony and Sharon Shephard, we commissioned them to creatively interpret poems by Ralph Dartford and to design a book we would want to touch as well as read.

Cigarettes, Beer and Love has brought together 5 artists on a shared mission to creative something beautiful.  A book you want to read, hold, cherish, and hide in a secret place all of your own.

We say we don’t quite know what it’s going to look like yet because as I type it is being made. Hand stitched together by Book Binder extraordinaire Roger Grech and when we last saw it it was in various parts in boxes at Leeds Graphic Press.

Nick Loaring at The Print Project who makes beautiful letterpress prints and books is making the cover and we think it’s going to look something like this.

The book will be available from August 1st and as usual we’re busy with badges, stickers and all sorts of peripheral nonsense to celebrate the launch of our first publication.

Here’s some info about the beautiful people that have made the book.

Ralph Dartford writes narrative poems from the heart. Sometimes funny, sometimes bittersweet, sometimes as sad as a lost dog. Ralph has been published in The Guardian, Stirring Magazine, Pulp Faction and London Territories.  His first Collection, ‘Cigarettes, Beer and Love’ has been a long time coming.

Shephard Creative Sharon and Tony Shephard aided and abetted by their son Jay have provided the images and layout for the book. They work in creative graphics, graphic art and design and all round loveliness. Based in Ossett, they are part of the Ossett Observer Arts Collective.

Print Project Based at Bradford’s famous 1 in 12 club. The Print Project aim to keep the skill and art of letterpress printing alive by 
producing work which is incredible to read, feel and
 touch. Nick Loaring from The Print Project has made the cover for ‘Cigarettes, Beer and Love’ and provided us with the inspiration to make a book you could enjoy holding as much as you will enjoy reading.

Papercut Bindery. Roger Grech, Book Binder, works from his Bindery at home in Shipley, where he hand crafts beautiful books in his cellar. Roger has stitched every book by hand and not complained. We think we owe him a drink.

Leeds Graphic Press supplied their skill in printing, folding, collating and brilliant advice to help us realise the ambition of making this book in the way we wanted to.

Ossett Observer .Led by Artist Jacqui Wicks. Ossett Observer is an arts and cultural collective based in the town of Ossett. They make carnivals, music, spoken word events, swap shops and yarnstorms. ‘Cigarettes, Beer and Love’ is their first publication.

Enquiries. info@ossettobserver.co.uk