Jackie Batey has been producing beautiful and creatively significant books, multiples and zines for the past thirteen years.
She started by producing a series of artist’s books and multiples exploring the dynamics of visual instructions and devices used in cigarette advertising from the 40s through to the 60s using irony and humour. These early books employed delightful devices from the period, cigarette cards, anaglyph images, board games and promotional box structures. Now anxiety, humour and modern living are themes that thread through her work and the focus is satirical.
Her books cover a huge range of subjects including the confidence trickster, running a secret society and zero through to Damp in Ditchwater, a postcard book that has grown from her own attraction to ‘less than exciting’ museums. Reboot which looks at technology failures and Headroom a visual response to the drive to fit more and more people into an ever diminishing space begin to evidence a growing frustration with everyday life.
She is a meticulous artist paying particular attention to written texts, design, print, paper and binding. Her books are hand worked using photography, illustration, found objects and hand lettering. She makes limited editions that vary between 10 and 50 and creates about 3 new titles per year.
She has produced 26 titles to date which are held in around fifty national and international permanent collections including; The V&A Library; Tate Britain; Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, Chicago, and many others. The British Library hold a complete set of her titles. Jackie was one of six book artists selected by the V&A to be interviewed for their website.