Redesigning the Medieval Book

Alongside Designing English, an exhibition from 2017, which showed the imagination and ingenuity of books in English in the Middle Ages, we invited contemporary artists and craftspeople to come and see those medieval manuscripts and make new books – or alternatives to books – inspired by what they saw.

Some people showed us that medieval crafts such as calligraphy or embroidery are still thriving today. Others designed new formats, from board games to video, which might suit medieval literature. Several artists adapted medieval formats – calendars, concertina books – in order to tell new stories about our very different society. Others imitated the medieval creativity in very modern materials – rubber stamps, smartphones, recycled paper. And several responded to our exhibition with humour or friendly critique.

Redesigning the Medieval Book shows how we might be inspired by medieval book design, in the handicrafts, arts and digital technology of our own age.

Runners up

Paul Johnson

Serenade to Chaucer

Paul Johnson folds the energy of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale into a playful pop-up book.

Kathy Sedar

MCXXXVII

Kathy Sedar continues the medieval crafts of calligraphy and bookbinding to recount the cruelty of medieval history.

Roy Willingham, with Mike Sims

Restrukturanta la Mezepoka Libro (Restructuring the Medieval Book)

Roy Willingham continues our exhibition of everyday English in the Middle Ages by using recycled junk mail and Esperanto to tell our story.