Enfolded Journeys – exhibition

Enfolded Journeys is an open call touring exhibition of new artists’ books made in response to themes suggested by the title.

The themes relate to travel, displacement, geographies and borders, and migration in recent times and in the past as the effects of such movements of peoples, whether compelled or voluntary, may resound through generations.

Curated by John McDowall and Chris Taylor – and co-selected with artists Karen Babayan and Sophie Loss – the exhibition will be launched at The Leeds Library on Commercial Street to coincide with the PAGES Artists’ Book Fair.

The touring exhibition will provide an opportunity and contextualised platform for 50 individual artists and makers, to show their new book works to varied audiences across the UK and abroad.

Coming together, these artists’ books will exemplify the story telling, documenting of experience and the sharing characteristics of the book, which have always provided a self-contained, intimate yet accessible and mobile form.

Furthermore, an artist’s book may also involve an encounter that is distinctive to the medium; one that encompasses a shift of expectations of what a book is or does.

Please note that this exhibition is also open from 31 March to 3 April. Find out more here.

Emilija Pliaukštaitė, Stepping through the Boundary, Digital photomontage, 2025.

Venue

The Leeds Library
18 Commercial Street
Leeds LS1 6AL

For more information about planning your visit and accessibility, please visit The Leeds Library’s website.

Opening times

Monday to Friday, 1-3pm.

Access on Saturday 22 March by appointment only.

Please note that this exhibition is also open from 31 March to 3 April. Find out more here.

More information

This international open call (including artists from China, France, Germany, Italy and Puerto Rico) has developed out of the Shifting Borders: A Journey to the Centre of Our World(s) exhibition curated by Chris Taylor and held in the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery at the University of Leeds in 2023.

The Enfolded Journeys exhibition will tour to Appleby-in-Westmorland TIC (3-14 June 2025), DunoonMOCA (12 July-2 August 2025), Danum Gallery, Library and Museum, Doncaster (May-July 2026) and Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice (September 2026). Further dates will be announced in due course.

For further details, please email Chris Taylor at C.A.Taylor@leeds.ac.uk.

Image

Batool Showgi, A Visual Reflection on Displacement, Textile and stitching, 2025.