The Caravan Press | Lukas Hornby

Making Visible the Archive of Gwyneth Alban Davis April 2017 - May 2018 This project began it's life in the heart of the Langdale Valley and currently lives on in UCLan, very ablely supported by none other than Lubaina Himid and seven international women print-makers. The project sought to make visible the work of printmaker Gwyneth Alban Davis, resident at Cylinders (Lake District) between 1946-50, where she founded her own, one woman printmaking business, 'The Caravan Press.' Gwyneth was part of a creative community which involved the artist Kurt Schwitters and Hilde Goldsmidt. Until fairly recently her archive (a box of relief etched blocks) were lying dormant at Merz Barn, Cumbria and had not been seen since the 1950's. Our project sought to address this through cataloging and re-printing her archive, producing a publicly accessible book of her work and an exhibition of prints to be submitted to a major gallery collection. This project was supported by Heritage Lottery Fund and completed in 2017. The organisation 'Typooo North' was established by myself and Heather Ross with the ambitious aim of getting the project funded as described above and to then find it a home and a new life in contemporary print-making. We were so delighted that our vision for the archive was realised well beyond our ambitions culminating in this event in April 2018, where we were invited to speak about our practice and our story in relation to the archive and then to hear from seven women print-makers who will now be preparing new work to interpret the archive. Read more about that event here and follow Artlab for updates