Nonsuch Memory Of My Birth Artists’ Books
Thursday 30th January 2025 - Friday 14th March 2025
Winchester School of Art Library
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5:00pm - 7:00pm: A joint opening event in West Side Building for this exhibition and Queering Connections on Thursday 30th January 2025.
Twenty artists’ books made from crochet and clay. Each book contains one tile of twenty, referenced in an installation, Nonsuch Memory Of My Birth. The installation, artists’ books and performance, document the experiences of the artist working through the book, ‘Surviving A Borderline Parent’. The artists’ books are contained within a specially designed and built suitcase.
Joshua Raffell is an activist artist, taking an interest in power struggles, class and LGBTQIA+ stories. Coming from a canal gypsy background and being neuro divergent gives Joshua a rare perspective, an outsider on the inside.
Having left education with no qualifications, he was supported by City Lit to discover his potential as a mature student and was awarded an Outstanding Adult Learner in Visual Arts Award 2007. He studied at Sir John Cass (BA Hons), where he was awarded the Owen Rowley Award for originality. Following an MA at Chelsea School of Art, he was selected for the ‘Young Gods’ show by Zavier Ellis at Charlie Smith and Griffin Galleries in 2014.
He now lives and works on the Isle of Wight.
Joshua has exhibited on the Isle of Wight, London, Southampton and Portsmouth. He was awarded bursaries by A Space Arts and Isle of Wight Creative Network to explore clay and mosaic, mental illness and metamorphosis. He completed a Residency at ASPEX Gallery, Portsmouth exploring working class culture. He was commissioned to create an Artists’ Book for University of Southampton Library’s Artists’ Book Collection, at Winchester School of Art.
