BOOKENDS

📍Central Library, The Wellgate
🗓️ Thursday 18 June – Thursday 9 July

Twenty of Scotland’s most exciting designers were invited by curator Dr Stacey Hunter to create a unique pair of bookends, inspired by pioneering Dundonian journalists Marie Imandt and Bessie Maxwell.

In 1894, Marie and Bessie were asked by DC Thomson to undertake a round-the-world trip visiting ten different countries all whilst reporting back to readers across the UK about what they saw. Their writings considered design culture from Florence to Tokyo, as they described train carriages, tea ceremonies and more.

Responding to these reports, the twenty contemporary Scottish designers created sets of bookends in a variety of innovative materials, all whilst using sustainable manufacturing methods. A selection of these bookends can be seen on display here, shown for the first time since their premiere at Dundee Design Festival 2024.

Each designer explored experimental approaches, and innovative techniques to create their bookends. Dundee-based designer Aymeric Renould repurposed spent grain from the brewing process, compressing it into sheets to create stacked layers. Kate Trouw, based in Kinghorn, Fife, reused slag glass (a by-product of metal ore smelting processes) sourced from a former coal mine near Alloa, whilst Glasgow-based Soorin Shin 3-D printed their braided designs using both recycled filament and plant-based bioplastics.

Every pair of bookends is unique, reflecting how each designer creates, thinks and designs differently.

BOOKENDS was originally curated and devised by Dr Stacey Hunter for Dundee Design Festival 2024. It was inspired by The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum’s display ‘Dundee’s Two Intrepid Ladies’ and the accompanying book of the same name published by Abertay Historical Society. The exhibition was launched to celebrate Dundee’s 10th year as a UNESCO City of Design, and Edinburgh’s 20th year as a UNESCO City of Literature. The plinths for BOOKENDS were kindly donated by Tea Green Events and installed by Louise Forbes

Header Image: ‘For Books Not Buildings’ by Louise Forbes Design.