I make hand-made artist's books in small limited editions. Many are published by the Institute for Ground-Level Mapping and Exploration: see IGLM&E. If you would like to buy a book, please email me: hello at callytrench dot co dot uk

Many of my books have been exhibited with AMBruno. My books have also been exhibited at Wycombe Library (2019); and in the libraries of the University of Westminster (2018), Ravensbourne University (2017), and the University of the West of England (2016).

As children, one of my brothers and I entertained (annoyed?) each other by tapping the rhythm of tunes on the bathroom door when the other was inside having a bath. The one in the bath had to try to identify the tune. We tapped pop songs, nursery rhymes, carols, etc. It was regarded as cheating to tap a tune that you knew the other could not possibly recognise.

This book contains eight of the rhythms we tapped. Readers can tap the rhythm themselves on the drum using the wooden drum stick provided, and attempt to identify the tune, thus placing themselves on both sides of the bathroom door. A clue is given in the form of the initial letters of the opening words of each song.

At the time, neither of us knew standard music notation, so in this book the rhythm is depicted by a notation of the kind we might have used had we needed to: | LI-li | LI-li | li-li-li | LA. | etc.

Tapping Score was produced as part of the AMBruno rhythm project.

The yellow cover is a homage to the famous Eulenburg pocket scores. Fonts: Book Antiqua and Nueva Std Condensed. Signed and numbered. Printed ink on watercolour paper (inside pages), Clairefontaine Simili Japon ivory paper (the scores), and Sunshine Yellow card (the cover). Hand and machine sewn. Edition of 20. Signed and numbered. Price £27.97p.

Tapping Score was shown along with the other AMBruno rhythm books at Vienna Art Book Fair #2, 20th-22nd October 2023 at dieAngewandte - University of Applied Arts Vienna, and at the Small Publishers Fair, Conway Hall, London, 27th-28th October 2023. The rhythm books are also being shown at Printed Matter, Chelsea, New York City, 19th March to 14th April 2024.

A full set of the rhythm books, including Tapping Score, was bought by the British Library in November 2023, by the Tate in December 2023, and by the National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, in February 2024.

At the age of 15, I made marginal notes in my copy of a novel set for English Literature 'O' Level, in preparation for an essay on the character of Simon. Marginal Notes on Simon shows the 25 pages with marginal notes; the original text is omitted, and its shape is indicated by a thin red outline (revealing chapter headings, indentations, and paragraph ends). My notes are shown in their original location, but printed rather than hand-written, thus becoming the text of the new book.

Although the text of the novel exists only in ghost form, my marginal notes create a minimalist and partial version of the story. Readers may well identify the original novel, or get a sense of its themes. The cover illustration is an enlarged and altered fragment of a black-and-white still photograph from the 1963 film of the book, which was used on the cover of my copy of the original novel.

Marginal Notes on Simon was produced as part of the AMBruno Margins project.

Printed ink on watercolour paper. Hand sewn. Two editions of 12. Signed and numbered. Price £16.

Marginal Notes on Simon was first shown along with the other AMBruno Margins books at the Small Publishers Fair, Conway Hall, London, 28th-29th October 2022. It was also shown with the other Margins books at the Volumes Art Publishing days, Zentraläschrei, Zürich, 26th-27th November 2022; at PAGES: Reset Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds, 17th-18th March 2023; and at Offprint, Tate Modern, London, 12th-14th May 2023.

A copy of Marginal Notes on Simon was bought by the Bodleian Library, Oxford. A full set of the Margins books, including Marginal Notes on Simon, was bought by the British Library.

Eight micro stories written by Cally Trench are accompanied by original drawings of a VU meter: an analogue device for measuring loudness, marked from -20 to +3 VU with the volume indicated by a needle pointer. Each story culminates with a sentence or phrase that the reader is invited to speak at the appropriate volume. These spoken lines increase in volume from the start to the end of the book. At the end of the first story, you are invited to whisper "Cough sweet", and for the last you are invited to scream "NO!!!!!!".

VU Meter was produced as part of the AMBruno Volume project.

Printed ink on watercolour paper. Card cover. Pointer drawn by hand in ink. Hand sewn. Edition of 20. Signed and numbered. Price £12.

VU Meter was shown along with the other Volume books at a launch event in London on 19th December 2021; at the 2022 Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE), University of the West of England, Bristol; and at Miss Read, Berlin in 2022. It was also shown with other AMBruno books at Printed Matter, New York in July 2022.

Some books from AMBruno's Volume collection were bought by the Tate Library, including VU Meter. A full set of the Volume books, including VU Meter, was bought by the British Library.

A bird's wing is one thing made up of many feathers, just as a book is one thing made up of many pages. But while all the pages of a book are (usually) the same shape and size, the feathers that make up a bird's wing are shaped according to their function. In this book, each feather is different, an individual ink drawing. The book is constructed so that it can be read like a book or flapped like a wing. It exists in two forms - a right-handed and a left-handed form. If a reader holds both, will it give an illusion of flight?

Book-Wing was produced as part of the AMBruno One and many pages project.

Printed ink on watercolour paper, bound with glue and machine stitching. Edition of 12: 6 left-hand copies and 6 right-hand copies. Price £55.

Book-Wing was shown online in 2021 in BABE - The Lost Weekend, Bristol, and in Printed Matter's Virtual Art Book Fair (PMVABF), New York, along with the other One and many pages books. Book-Wing and the other One and many pages books were shown physically at a launch event in London on 19th December 2021; at the 2022 Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE), University of the West of England, Bristol; and at Miss Read, Berlin in 2022. It was also shown with other AMBruno books at Printed Matter, New York in July 2022.

A full set of the One and many pages books, including Book-Wing, was bought by the British Library, and also by the Library of of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore for their Special Collections.

A second edition of Book-Wing was made in February 2023, with once again six right-hand copies and six left-hand copies. There are some small differences from the first edition, including short sentences in amongst the text. On the left-hand wing: 'What would the world be like without birds? A garden without a robin? A lake without a swan? A mountain with no eagle?' On the right-hand wing: 'Without birds, would we ever have dreamt of flight or angels?'

This second edition of Book-Wing was shown in In The Likeness of Birds, an exhibition at The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford, July 2023, with Annie Rapstoff and Monika Tobel.

Book-Wing was featured in Haus A Rest's Issue 43 on the theme of The Artist Book in October 2023 (on Instagram and their website).

WE SHALL MEET AGAIN

A catalogue of late-Victorian and early-Edwardian hands motifs on gravestones. The bereaved person would, as now, choose a design from the stonemason's catalogue, and the printed image on paper would be transformed into a carved message in stone. One symbol favoured by the newly-widowed was two right hands - one female, one male - touching for the last time, sometimes accompanied by the words WE SHALL MEET AGAIN: a confident promise of reunion as the beloved left this everyday world for the unknowable and immeasurable expanse beyond death. In WE SHALL MEET AGAIN, Cally Trench has [re-]created a hypothetical catalogue of hands motifs by making drawings from fifteen gravestones dated 1890-1916. Published by the Institute for Ground-Level Mapping and Exploration.

WE SHALL MEET AGAIN is part of BBruno's collection From this to there.

Printed ink on watercolour paper. Hand sewn. Edition of 25. Signed and numbered. Price £16.

WE SHALL MEET AGAIN was first shown in 2019, at the New York Art Book Fair and the Small Publishers' Fair, London, along with other new books by members of BBruno.

A copy of WE SHALL MEET AGAIN was bought by the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

A Dictionary of Geographical Features in Late-Victorian and Early-Edwardian Letter-Cut Stone House Names in High Wycombe

In certain areas of High Wycombe, there are streets of late-Victorian and early-Edwardian 'villas' of moderate grandeur. These houses are mostly semi-detached, and many still have decorative elements such as carved stone heads and flowers over the windows, and letter-cut stone house names above the storm porch. In slightly less grand houses, a single stone plaque may name a pair or terrace of houses. The stone house names are in varying condition: some are essentially unchanged and unpainted, others all but obliterated by weather or unappreciative owners. Published by the Institute for Ground-Level Mapping and Exploration.

A Dictionary of Geographical Features in Late-Victorian and Early-Edwardian Letter-Cut Stone House Names in High Wycombe was first shown at BABE, Arnolfini, Bristol in 2019 along with other new books by members of BBruno.

Printed ink on watercolour paper. Card cover. Hand sewn. Edition of 20. Signed and numbered. Price: £12.

Footsie Footzine and Mirror Mirror

Footsie Footzine (2018) and Mirror Mirror (2018) are zines, made by folding and cutting A4 sheets of printed paper to make small 8-page booklets. Footsie Footzine shows series of drawings in ink, charcoal and pastel of Cally's socked feet. Mirror Mirror shows a series of drawings from life in ink and charcoal Cally's face in a mirror. Unlimited editions.

Footsie Footzine and Mirror Mirror were shown at BABE, Arnolfini, Bristol in 2019 along with other new books by members of BBruno.

Please feel free to download one or both of these zines as pdf files so that you can make a copy for yourself:

Cally Trench: Footsie Footzine zine and Cally Trench: Mirror Mirror zine.

A follower of holy and godly matrons

In this reflection on the way veils both conceal and draw attention to the bride at a wedding, photographs of Cally wearing a series of bridal veils are themselves veiled by sheets of translucent paper, thus covering her twice - at times almost to the point of disappearance. Each of the nine tipped-in glossy photographs is accompanied by a detailed technical description of the veil and by one word taken from this sentence: ... that this woman may be loving and amiable, faithful and obedient to her husband; and in all quietness, sobriety, and peace, be a follower of holy and godly matrons (from The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony in The Book of Common Prayer). This is the form of wedding service used when Cally was a bridesmaid at the weddings of her older cousin and sister-in-law.

A follower of holy and godly matrons (2018) was produced as part of the AMBruno Cover project.

Printed ink on watercolour paper, with tipped-in photographs, interleaved with translucent paper. Hand sewn and bound. Hand-painted covers and end papers. Signed and numbered. Edition of 20. Price: £20.

A follower of holy and godly matrons was shown in 2018, along with other AMBruno Cover books, at the 21st International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, at the Tetley, Leeds; Miss Read, Berlin; the Small Publishers' Fair, London; and Volumes, Zürich, and in 2019 at BABE, Arnolfini, Bristol. A follower of godly and holy matrons was also included in a selection of books shown by AMBruno at Malmö Artist's Book Biennial, Malmö, Sweden, 2018.

A photograph of the book, held open by the artist's hands, was made into a banner as part of the FiLiArt 100 project, shown at Tammam Atelier, London; FiLiA Conference, Manchester; Ateliê 397, São Paulo, Brazil; and in a guerilla banner showcase, Parliament Square, London, all in 2018.

A full set of the Cover collection, including A follower of godly and holy matrons, were bought by the the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin and also by the British Library. A copy of A follower of godly and holy matrons was also bought by Chelsea College of Arts (University of the Arts, London) along with some others from the Cover collection.

A copy of A follower of holy and godly matrons is in the collection of the Photo Book Cafe library and database of photobooks, London.

A follower of holy and godly matrons (2021) also exists as a very short film in which the artist appears and disappears while wearing a series of bridal veils.

Passport

As a child, Cally Trench watched many prisoner-of-war films, and always wanted to be the character that forged the documents, rather the one that escaped through the tunnel. To make Passport, Cally took on the persona of a prisoner-of-war whose only exemplar was her mother's 1950 British passport, and who had failed to understand the basic premise of this kind of document. While a passport is valuable, it says almost nothing about the individual person who carries it. Cally's Passport, by contrast, contains 'stamps' (drawn by hand) for every place she has lived, schools, jobs, and other important life events. It is a kind of autobiography. It is also a recognition that people are more than the identity assigned to them by official documents.

Passport is a unique book, with hand-painted covers and hand-drawn 'stamps'.

Passport was exhibited in PASSPort Britannia in July 2017 at Safehouse 1, London, curated by Rekha Sameer, and also in Siblings Cannot Agree at the Heseltine Gallery, Middleton Cheney, in 2018.

International Day by Cally Trench and Philip Lee

At Cally's English primary school, in the early 1960s, there was an annual 'International Day', when children dressed up in a mish-mash of genuine and improvised national costumes. Cally Trench and Philip Lee have re-created 'International Day', and readers are invited to identify the eight European countries they depict, so becoming complicit in the stereotypes.

International Day (2017) was produced as part of AMBruno's [sic] collection.

Printed ink on paper. Card cover. Signed and numbered. Edition of 25. Price: £20.

International Day was shown at PAGES Leeds / International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair at the Tetley in March 2017; at BABE at the Arnolfini, Bristol in April 2017; at Miss Read, Berlin in July 2017;, and at The New York Art Book Fair in September 2017.

The entire [sic] collection, including International Day, was bought by the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, and by the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. A copy of International Day was also bought by the British Library, and another copy is in the Ravensbourne University collection of artists' books.

"Such a great idea and great laugh. You and Philip are just irresistible! Thank you so much for it all. It brings the sun back in my week." (Valérie Mary, 2018)

"My fave pic was seeing you posed as Britannia with the grass rake. It did make me smile." (Amanda Green, 2019)

Cally Trench and Philip Lee performed International Day Readings at the Tetley, Leeds on 5th March 2017, and at the Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE) at the Arnolfini, Bristol on 2nd April 2017. Cally, in the role of a teacher, dressed in robes and garlanded with mistletoe, read extracts from the Collins Wide World Reader (of c. 1905) in order to discover more about the character of Europeans, including the English, while Philip took on the role of a human visual aid and personified the different countries described.

International Day and International Day Readings arise out of Cally and Philip's distrust of stereotypes; the book and performances reveal the reductive effects of stereotypes, but in a comedic manner.

Words you could say instead of CHEESE

Taking photographs and being photographed with a 1950s Kodak Brownie 127 film camera, with the need to pause and pose, means that the occasion is a memorable single moment. We still conventionally say 'cheese' as we pose, but, as we increasingly take unposed snaps with our digital cameras, the need for a single perfect grin is removed. For Words you could say instead of CHEESE (2017), Cally Trench invited people to try out other words, with different vowel sounds, as she photographed them with a Brownie 127 camera. Unlimited edition.

Words you could say instead of CHEESE was chosen to be included in their stock by Printed Matter, New York.

Cemetery Botany

Cemetery Botany (2014) shows photographs of small carvings of flowers and plants found on late 19th or early 20th century gravestones alongside coloured versions that bring the carvings to life. These stone carvings were chosen by mourners to express their feelings, or the character of the deceased, through the symbolism of plants: forget-me-nots, roses, lilies and so on. Some of the carvings are botanically correct; in others, flowers and leaves do not match. Many similar carvings are now neglected and decaying. Published by the Institute for Ground-Level Mapping & Exploration.

Printed ink on paper. Hand sewn. Signed and numbered. Edition of 25. Price: £15.

A copy of Cemetery Botany is in the Ravensbourne University collection of artists' books.

Cemetery Botany also exists as a short time-lapse film, in which the carvings are animated in colour, with music written specially for the film by composer Josh Hagley.

Twenty-five Wrought Iron Front Gates

Twenty-five Wrought Iron Front Gates (2013) is a spotter's guide to a dying species; front gates are disappearing from our streets as front gardens are converted into parking spaces. Made of wrought iron, with curly and straight lines translated into metal, these gates are symbolic portals rather than solid defences. They act as the entry point to the front garden, itself a liminal space between the public domain of the road and the private domian on the house. Published by the Institute for Ground-Level Mapping & Exploration.

Twenty-five Wrought Iron Front Gates was produced as part of AMBruno's Lines project.

Printed ink on bamboo paper. Card cover. Hand sewn. Signed and numbered. Edition of 15. Price: £15.

Twenty-five Wrought Iron Front Gates was shown at the Whitechapel Art Book Fair, London in 2013.

A copy of all the books in the Lines collection, including Twenty-five Wrought Iron Front Gates, was bought by the Bibliotheca Librorum Apud Artificem, Library for the Artist's Book, in Sydney, Australia.

16 Dada Heads by Cally Trench and Philip Lee

To celebrate the start of Dada in 1916, Cally Trench and Philip Lee made 16 Dada Heads (2013) based on, inspired by, or completely tangential to Dada. They include our reinterpretation of Marcel Duchamp's Rrose Sélavy, Raoul Hausmann's Mechanical Head, and fourteen others, featuring Cally and Philip as models, photographers, and designers/interpreters.

16 Dada Heads was produced as part of the AMBruno Sixteen collection.

Printed ink on watercolour paper, with collage and hand-drawn additions. Hand sewn. Signed and numbered. Two editions of 16. Price: £16.

16 Dada Heads was shown at the 16th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, University of Leeds; the Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE); and the Artists Book Fair, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, all in 2013. 16 Dada Heads was also included in Punctuations, Separations & Artists' Books at Emma Hill Fine Art Eagle Gallery, London in 2013.

Cally and Philip performed Sixteen Dada Heads, during Drinks and Dada on 13th July 2013 during in Punctuations, Separations & Artists' Books at Emma Hill Fine Art Eagle Gallery, London. Cally and Philip performed Sixteen Dada Heads again at The Tetley, Leeds on Sunday 9th March 2014 as part of Book Act, an AMBruno event curated by Sophie Loss.

Start and End Paper

Start and End Paper (2012) is a one-fold book, the simplest form of a book. It shows 'marbling', actually drawn by hand on a computer, on both sides, in recollection of the marbled end papers in some old books.

Start and End Paper was produced as part of AMBruno's One-Fold Books collection.

Printed ink on paper. Double-sided single folded sheet. Unlimited edition. Price: £1.

Start and End Paper was shown at the 15th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, Leeds; in At Play 2012, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham; in X Marks the Bökship, London (all 2012); and Publish and Be Damned, ICA, London in 2013.

A copy of Start and End Paper is in the Ravensbourne University collection of artists' books.

Blue Home Grown by Cally Trench and Philip Lee

Blue Home Grown by Cally Trench and Philip Lee is a friendly homage to Roy Hay's Home Grown, a gardening hit of 1956, based on a BBC programme.

Blue Home Grown was produced as part of AMBruno's Blue collection.

Printed ink on photographic paper, interleaved with original pages from Home Grown by Roy Hay. Card cover. Signed and numbered. Two editions of 6. Price: £20.

Blue Home Grown was shown at the 2011 London Art Book Fair at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.

The V&A bought a copy of every book in AMBruno's Blue collection, including Blue Home Grown.

I fear the Twig Ogre and I love balloons

This bookmark, I fear the Twig Ogre and I love balloons (2011), was inspired by the way that reading creates strong emotions and takes us to other places. Every bookmark in the edition of 100 is slightly different as a result of the techniques used - watercolour and print on watercolour paper. The expression on the balloon's face, for example, varies because it was drawn by hand.

I fear the Twig Ogre and I love balloons was made for Bookmarks X : Infiltrating the Library System, a project by The University of the West of England (The Centre for Fine Print Research), in which artist-made bookmarks are distributed free via worldwide library venues.

Remarkable Bookshelf and Remarkable Bookshelf 2

Remarkable Bookshelf (2010) resulted when Cally Trench asked the Remarkable and Curious Conversations artists in June 2010 what they were reading. She made a zigzag book from photographs of one hundred of the book spines. Edition of 30.

Remarkable Bookshelf (2010) was shown at the 2011 International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair in Leeds.

A copy of Remarkable Bookshelf was bought by the Tate Library.

In July 2011, Cally Trench once again asked the Remarkable and Curious Conversations artists what they were reading, and she made a zigzag book, Remarkable Bookshelf 2 (2011) from photographs of the book spines. It is a unique book.

Remarkable Bookshelf 2 was shown in Remarkable Shed, London in 2012.

For more details: Remarkable Bookshelf and Remarkable Bookshelf 2

Feel Good Miniature Scrolls

Cally Trench's Feel Good Miniature Scrolls (2011) were presented as a lucky dip at Artsmart, Chelsea College of At and Design in July 2011.

Teatime

Teatime (2009) is a handmade pop-up book with four scenes, showing an encounter at teatime.

Printed ink on paper. Cut, engineered and glued onto watercolour paper. Hand sewn. Signed and numbered. Edition of 10. Price: £25.

Teatime was exhibited with AMBruno in the London Art Book Fair at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London in 2010, and the Leeds International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair in 2011.

Emotional Atlas of Friars Square

An Emotional Atlas of Friars Square (2008) was based on an emotional mapping project in Friars Square Shopping Centre, Aylesbury. Published by the Institute for Ground-Level Mapping & Exploration.

Printed ink on paper, tipped into a watercolour zigzag construction, with hand-made and painted slip case. Signed and numbered. Edition of 5. Price: £15.

An Emotional Atlas of Friars Square was included in Ting-Ting Cheng's project The Atlas of places that don't exist in Corner, Hotel c'est la vie project space, Whitechapel, London; Art Stage, Singapore; and You are here Festival, Kingsgate Gallery, London, in 2013-2014.

A copy of An Emotional Atlas of Friars Square is in the Ravensbourne University collection of artists' books.

Eleven Views of Fiona's Washing Line

Eleven Views of Fiona's Washing Line (2008) is a zigzag book, showing a series of photographs taken at different times of the year of a laden washing line. It echoes the kind of concertina books of photographs of holiday resorts that could be bought as souvenirs during Cally's childhood, and also collections of prints by Hokusai, such as Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji.

Printed ink photographs tipped into a watercolour paper zigzag construction, with hanging ribbon. Signed and numbered. Edition of 11. Price: £15.