The Story of Books Exhibition

I was a bit late for the start of the concert at Cartref, and on the way I noticed the door to 20, Castle Street was open. I'd been meaning to have a look at their new exhibition, so I went in there instead.
The shop is currently celebrating two war poets: Edward Thomas from the First World War, and Keith Douglas from the Second World War - they were responsible for the play Unicorns, Almost about Keith Douglas's life, which was put on during Hay Festival.
So they have a small amount of books for sale, but the real focus of the shop is the exhibition space. This is upstairs, and over the week they've been concentrating on a different aspect of how a book is made. On the Saturday, they had illustrations from The Collected Poems of Edward Thomas published by the Folio Society, showing the different choices of colours, and they're also having displays on marbling paper, and book binding through the week.

Here I am, looking round the exhibition - Emma Balch took the photo.

They also have a display of cardboard books by Hay Cartoneras. Emma and Oliver Balch spent some time in South America, and this is a South American idea which grew out of an economic crisis, a love of cardboard, a commitment to making literature accessible, and an interest in the artistic and literary potential of artisanal book-making (the handout says!). They're planning to run workshops on making the cardboard books, and will be showing films about the project.

They'll also be doing more things connected to Unicorns, Almost throughout August, including the return of the Blind Bookworms to Hay - they provided the jazz music before the performances of the play in May - the design of the set, local connections to Keith Douglas, and letterpress printing.

They've got plans for the future, too - an exhibition of wordless picture books in the autumn, and a Winter Wayzgoose.