After months of preparation, The Burgess Foundation and Cornerhouse’s exhibition of Burgess book cover art opened on the evening of Thursday 7^th November.

The exhibition features screenprints produced by Manchester-based photographer and printmaker Sam Huddleston and draws upon rare and unusual material within the Burgess Foundation collections. After much deliberation, the covers were chosen from books originally published in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and together they demonstrate the variety of Burgess’s writing as well as the diverse ways in which the author’s work has been interpreted by artists.

The Burgess prints run throughout the ground floor and first floor bar and café; we were thrilled to see so many people enjoying a drink and chatting to Sam about his work and the artistic processes behind the exhibition.  

Creating the Exhibition

Focusing on the most distinct designs, Sam produced each print by using a different screen for each colour. The original book covers were scanned and split into colour-based layers using Photoshop; each layer was then printed out as an opaque image.

Areas of the screen were covered with ink and pulled through onto the canvas with a squeegee.

By repeating this process (a similar method to how the original book covers were devised), the layered images eventually revealed a complete picture, or in Sam’s case, a striking reproduction of a Burgess book cover.

All prints are available for sale and will be on display until 7^th January 2014. Contact Cornerhouse Box Office on +44 (0)161 200 1504 or www.cornerhouse.org/contact for more information.

See more of Sam’s work at http://samuelhuddleston.tumblr.com

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