2017

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A new art work & interactive creative writing project celebrating the art of the handwritten letter.

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This work explored the art of the Regency 'crossed letter'. Writers including Jane Austen would often layers their letters, writing both horizontally and vertically. This technique would save money on paper and postage, but often proved difficult to read. This was taken to the extreme with layers of letters on acetate, adapted from the journeys of Thomas Leigh across Europe and Egypt.

 

Visitors to Lyme Park, Disley were invited to don a Regency hat, pick up a quill and write letters about their travels. These letters were then folded and sealed in the Regency manner, before being hand delivered to strangers by a postal worker, Steph Reynolds, on a hobbyhorse named Ned.

 

Photography by Jason Lock, courtesy of National Trust supported by Waterside Arts Centre/CIT. 

Commissioned by Trust New Art, National Trust 

Supported by Waterside Arts Centre, Creative Industries Trafford

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Learn more about the theatrical companion piece - Letters From Egypt