Handmade Book - Notes for a Sage

1996. A handmade concertina fold artist's book. Cloth covered boards with incised leather panels enclose a collaged paper concertina fold book. The pages are a combination of ink and watercolour with some coloured paper and silver foil. Unfolded, the contents of the book measure 140cm long. Inscribed by the artist on the front paste down and titled and signed to the last fold. "Clarke's more recent three-dimensional paper constructions in the form of artist's books may be seen then as part of a life-long interest in books, not only as a reader but also as a designer. They take a new direction that is not concerned with illustration, however, and they rarely include his own images or indeed those of other artisrts; they are not pictorial collections but assemblages of scrap materials he has gathered over time. It is a practice he relates to childhood experiences, when his parents 'made do' with whatever was to hand and did not discard things needlessly. Reflecting habits of both hoarding and recycling, Clarke's use of waste can be seen as a response to the practical necessity of getting rid of excess material in his restricted environment, but can also be linked to the loftier goal of combatting pollution." (Listening to Distant Thunder, Hobbs & Rankin)