The Book House

The Book House Cavan

During the spring and summer of 2010 Floating World worked on the transformation of a derelict house in Bullock Lane, Cavan, into a dynamic venue for the creation and display of contemporary Art.
We worked with Builders, the Council and the Arts Officer in shaping the building into a space where artists can work and share their ideas with each other and with the public.
We invited local artists as well as members of the public to come in and make their own Artists Books. These works could be as simple as a printed, folded sheet of paper, or they can be more elaborate works, with complex bindings and hand printed illustrations.
The Bullock Lane house became ‘The Book House’, a temporary publishing house, functioning as a public art project and as a completely new approach to book art. The projects central aim was to explore new ways of democratizing the production and dissemination of art. In this sense it followed on from previous Floating World projects, such as Reading Room at Sligo Art Gallery.
In the run up to the opening of the building we completed a number of offsite educational projects across the county working with groups such as Cavan Youthreach and the Belturbet Scouts to produce work for the houses’ inaugural exhibition. The resulting works along with the work produced in The Book House with the public was shown in an exhibition at the end of the residency, and toured to different venues thereafter.