2026 is the National Year of Reading, and to celebrate, SEVEN has taken a literary theme for this year’s Leigh Art Trail.
Each artist chose a fictional book that resonates with them personally. Rather than thinking about how the books might inspire our artwork, we reflected on how they made us feel – the memories, emotions, connections and thoughts they stirred up, and why these particular stories have stayed with us.
Amanda Jackson
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Are you an avid reader, did you learn to love books as a child? I certainly did and was encouraged by my family from an early age.
One small blue book, a gift from my beloved aunt had a lasting impact on me and was the natural choice for this year’s theme, ‘to respond to a cherished book’.
I first read Jonathan’s story when I was about nine years old. It is a small novella, a little book and so was very appealing to a child, I loved the dark blue cover, the design and the blurred stylish seagull on the cover. Inside where intriguing photos of seagulls soaring and the simple prose took me away into the clouds. Initially it reads like a children’s story with lots of description of flying; I would later learn that Richard Bach is a pilot. I remember that suddenly there was an awful lot more to this story. Jonathan was no longer with us but in another place, he had died and gone to heaven. I can’t quite place the sensations that I felt, but I was moved spiritually.
I reread this little book many times, because it eventually fell apart and I bought another copy. As a young adult the book gives you much more. You are aware that there are themes around human nature, how we can be unkind to one another, particularly as children, how we should learn to love and forgive. That self-belief and individuality are worth fighting for. That we should not be afraid to go against the strong urge to conform, easier said than done.
Reading as an adult, you feel the undertone of issues around organised religion, this need within us to have something bigger than us that we should be worshipping, rather learning the lessons of history or doing the right thing. A fourth section was added to the book to celebrate its 40th Anniversary, which gave a more complete finish to it, although I don’t think it needed it.
So that’s the story and its impact, now how to respond!
As this story hit me in waves over the decades that I have read it, giving me something new each time, my artist book is a concertina book, that has no structure, no narrative form of beginning, middle and end, but hits you from all directions and revolves and moves, like flight. It can begin or end at any point. I invite you to suspend judgement and just enjoy each page for its own sake which is pretty much how I made it.
Juliet Bryson
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
As an avid reader from childhood, it was a difficult choice, but I decided on Swallows & Amazons series by Arthur Ransome.
This book (and the subsequent 11 in the series) brings back memories of family and Girl Guiding camping trips. My memory is that we had one book between us each holiday (and would then take it turns to read)
I think what was appealing is that (as in many children’s books) the children go off to have an adventure without adults around and have to learn to cope making their own decisions, navigating new friendships and unfamiliar surroundings.
The children have different personalities – John the oldest, being the responsible one, tasked with making sure the others don’t drown, Susan the homemaker, Roger the youngest with no sense of responsibility and taking each moment as it comes. Titty is the dreamer, who sees the world through the books she reads.
Even though the book is written in the 1930s, there is already a sense of nostalgia for a Lake District way of life that is changing, and of complaints about the “Day Trippers” and “Hooligans” that are encroaching on the peace and quiet of the area.
My artist book is made of canvas to tie in with the material their tents and boat sails would have been made from, and the concept of ’making do’ and that scraps of fabric would have been kept and reused.
The illustrations are by Ransome himself, who apparently wasn’t happy with his proposed illustrator’s images. I like their black and white simplicity which means they have a timeless quality. I have used Gelli-printing, transfer printing, stamps, felt pens, and free machine embroidery to re-interpret them.
Nicola Watts
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
I based my project on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick and both Bladerunner films. I came across the original film first – wrong way round I know – when I was 16 and had just started college. I read the book not long after and it’s important to me as I was captivated by this alternative reality just as I was discovering who I was and what I enjoyed in the world (and what I definitely didn’t). I read many other books at that time as part of my studies and beyond, but this one has remained a firm favourite.
Whenever I read it again or re-watch the original film – I enjoy the sequel too, but obviously that’s far more recent – it takes me back to the times when life was becoming a real adventure with so many possibilities at my feet. That was all a pretty long time ago now. The world has changed and continues to change, as do I, but the themes of empathy, authenticity and emotion remain more important than ever in the climate of uncertainty that we live in. I still love an adventure though!
I deliberately chose not to reveal the book and films when showing my project at the Leigh Art Trail. I’d wanted our visitors to travel through my work and see if they could guess what it was about from the clues, I left scattered along the way. It was delightful watching people engage with my work and even more so when they got it. And, for those who didn’t know the story, it was still an exciting ride through my interpretations.
Jo Bund
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
My artist book is inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, exploring one of the story’s recurring themes of growth and identity through the question: “Who am I? Who are you?”
Inspiration
I was given this book as a child and was captivated by John Tenniel’s detailed black-and-white woodcut illustrations. I was fascinated by the unforgettable characters – particularly the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit and the Caterpillar – as well as the surreal journey through Wonderland. Alice’s changing size, her fall down the rabbit hole, and the symbolic door and key all represent transformation, curiosity and hidden possibilities.
The structure of my handmade artist book echoes these ideas. When opened, it unfolds like a tumbling cascade of playing cards; when closed, it concertinas into the shape of a pack of cards. I have used collage, mixed media, garden foliage and Shisha embroidery mirrors to create layered surfaces that invite closer exploration.
Aim
Many phrases from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have become part of everyday language: “Down the rabbit hole,” “I’m late,” and “Who are you?”
As I enter a new chapter of life, I have found myself returning to that last question. My age, career and the growing influence of AI have prompted me to reflect on my own identity and direction. Creating this artist book has given me the opportunity to explore those questions and consider where I want the next chapter to lead.
Helen Davis
The Little Black Book of Short Stories by AS Byatt
This year’s mixed media project has been inspired by The Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt, a collection of five short stories often described as a cabinet of curiosities—filled with images and ideas that are at once beautiful and grotesque, mundane yet magical.
Each story explores a different aspect of the human experience:
The Thing in the Forest explores childhood trauma, memory, and fear through the experiences of two wartime evacuees who encounter a mysterious creature in the woods.
Body Art centres on the female body, medicine, and birth, culminating in an artwork inspired by the Hindu goddess Kali, a powerful symbol of creation, destruction, and transformation.
A Stone Woman follows a woman’s physical and psychological metamorphosis after the death of her mother and her own illness, as she gradually transforms into stone.
Raw Material reflects on storytelling, creativity, and the hidden darkness of domestic life through an elderly woman’s memories of housework as relentless labour.
The Pink Ribbon considers ageing, memory, dementia, love, and loss through the relationship between an elderly couple and the haunting presence of the woman’s younger self.
Together, these stories weave through themes of trauma, the female body, metamorphosis, memory, and mortality, providing a rich starting point for my own visual responses.
Combining a range of materials with my life drawing studies and found imagery, each piece explores the layered symbolism that characterises Byatt’s writing.
Personal objects are also woven into the work, creating connections between fiction and lived experience. For example, the small red book used in my response to The Thing in the Forest belonged to my Nan, who, like the story’s protagonists, was a wartime evacuee.
Kim Saunders
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
REBELLION!
I always loathed Jane Eyre – yes, I confess. I thought the book was tedious and the heroine was a sanctimonious, judgemental bore. There I have said it.
I was always a bit rebellious in my English Literature classes (sorry Mr Reynolds), and don’t even get me started on The Pilgrims Progress! This year for the Leigh Art Trail, and 2026 being The Year of Reading, when we chose “Literary” as our theme and I needed to select a book, my thoughts immediately turned to Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.
We all wanted to choose a book that had meaning to us, or had made a difference to us, and this book changed how I viewed things, and taught me to think and question the narrative.
So, back to Jane Eyre. I realised that nearly everyone but me loved it, but it took reading Wide Sargasso Sea to make me think about why I did not. I became aware that I was not alone in questioning the whole ‘mad woman in the attic’ situation. If a wife became inconvenient, it seems it was not uncommon to declare her “mad” and lock her away. When you look at the timeline it’s even worse, she was imprisoned for a decade.
Locked away for ten years, if you weren’t mad to start with, you would have been positively furious by the end – no wonder she burnt the house down!
Rochester becomes not in the least bit romantic. He tries bigamy, and when that doesn’t work, he suggests Jane becomes his Mistress. How charming.
I’m afraid that “Reader, I married him” was not the ending I sought.
In this book, I try to give a feeling of Wide Sargasso Sea, and I hope you enjoy my impressions enough to seek out a copy and read the book, so you can draw your own conclusions.
The Leigh Art Trail runs from Saturday 4th July to Sunday 19th July.