Of Mermaids’ Purses And Freemasons

Artist’s book, 2026

Mermaids purses are ray and shark egg cases produced by female fish. Over a three year period, I collected empty purses washed ashore on the beaches of Hastings, East Sussex.

Purses are fixed to seabed flora with string, each purse protecting a developing embryo as it grows. After a fish hatches, it breaks out of the purse and swims off, the abandoned purses often washing up on beaches.

I pressed the purses like flowers then photographed them arranged over the pages of By-Laws, Sidcup Lodge, No. 6552 (1952 edition) – a vintage book of membership rules for the Sidcup branch of free and accepted masons. The purses physically obstruct – redact – the written rules of an exclusively men-only networking society, thereby undermining a system of patriarchy.

By putting random objects together I wondered how they might connect and what ideas would be evoked. Like with Some Queer Animals before, I physically interact with nature with tenderness and care recoginising that each empty purse is entirely unique in form.

In Of Mermaids’ Purses And Freemasons both the pages of By-Laws and the purses are reproduced at their actual size. This handmade book uses multiple tactile paperstocks and is finished with Japanese stab binding using linen thread. Edition of 5.

To purchase contact info@neg-press.com

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Handmade artist’s book, 32pp, 23.7cm x 18cm, stab bound. Various paper stocks, linen thread. Edition of 5. £45