Engulf : Deplete - Water

The 'Engulf : Deplete' series is a trilogy of books about sources of energy around my home and studio. They consider the power that our species has harnessed and the risks that process poses to us. The first iteration was 'Water' and the second is 'Coal'. (The final part - 'Oil' - will be published in 2026.)

My studio is located in a narrow valley in the hills above a small town and through that space a river, road and railway line run. Human habitation of this environment, in a post-subsistence agricultural sense, essentially exists due to its damp climate and geography, perfect for the booming textile trade of the 19th century. (There is much more to be said about this trade, the cotton routes and exploitation of human labour.)

This iteration of the series considers how humans have tried to shape, mould and use water in this environment, and how that continues to affect the people who live here. In order to build houses for the textile industry workers and the road for access, the river was culverted for long sections - almost literally below my feet in the studio. In times of heavy rain, rocks can be heard tumbling through it. When that heavy rain continues, the culvert overflows and water runs down the road, into backyards and houses. Working upstream, one reason rain has such an impact is the consistent deforestation of the moors above us, partly due to farming policy over generations but also the impact of landowners who cut trenches into their moorland to facilitate quick run-off, thus ensuring grouse have no protection from the regular shooting parties who pay big money for the dubious privilege.

The book consists of a one-line poem which begins the book overprinted and obscured. It gradually reveals aspects of its words as the book progresses. In the pages between these words lie image elements that reflect water (which, of course, is never blue) and the detritus left by receding flood waters. The latter pages are printed from a simple collagraph matrix overlaid with Monoblox metal type. The text pages are printed in 48pt Granby Extra Bold and various sizes of Plantin.

The pages and cover were printed in my studio on a 1957 Eickhoff 1BS press. The image areas are printed from a collagraph matrix and Monoblox metal type and the covers are multiple printings of the same matrix. I bound the books with a 5-hole pamphlet stitch and used a single section Bradel binding to secure the book into the covers.