AMBruno Artists
Karen Blake

Books: I am interested in mapping the correlations between people, space and time, especially where these are unstable. Books interest me as subjects because, with the advent of electronic media, they have endangered status. They attract me as a medium because of their potential for modesty and versatility. The books I make tend to be small. Sometimes I make them myself and sometimes I work in collaboration with Book Works.

In my books I have explored three strands:
- the form and status of books
- the relationship of people to place
- the surfacing and re-surfacing of history.

Karen Blake graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in 2011.

In 2010, she exhibited in A Lesser Event at Flat Time House and First Cut at the Biscuit Factory, Bermondsey. Her work Working Classes was selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize Touring Exhibition (2011). Her first participation with AMBruno was in 2012 at the Leeds International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, and since then she has been a regular contributor. A number of her books have been purchased by national collections of artists' books.

True Colours , which is part of AMBruno's [sic] collection, is a book of two volumes in one, with a shared spine and transparent pages. These contain flags from which you are invited to assemble the flag of your desired identity. The book's form, however, means that all that is rejected remains conjoined. Edition of 20. Indigo printing and foil blocking. Post-bound. 20 leaves of clear acetate.

Red Lines
Lines must be drawn.
And they can be set in stone.
Red lines are lines of limit.
Red Lines is part of AMBruno's Red collection.

White Cube at Sea: The cube is an unlikely intervention in a natural landscape. And perspective is just another story that we author, the eye sees what it expects, and the mind constructs its own monumental landscapes. In truth this is a humble salt lick, offered to the sea, and soon swallowed up. Digital print. White Cube at Sea is part of AMBruno's I'm telling you stories. Trust me collection of limited edition prints.

NB, in three volumes:
Folio two tears one fold 16 pages.
Quarto one tear two folds 16 pages.
Octavo one sheet three folds 16 pages.
Digitally printed, hand finished. Paper, card, and pencil. Edition of 20. NB is part of AMBruno's 16 collection.

Boat circle: water - discrepancy between imagined and GPS-tracked circle. void-ances. Once we knew what place meant. Now we are not so sure. To understand this, I tracked round and round in circles trying to create voids in the landscape. GPS generated wayward waymarkers. The results, no voids, just fresh places. Digitally printed. Edition of 5. void-ances is part of AMBruno's Black Circle collection.

Book of folds tells its own story. It maps the events of its own making through notation, marks, and material, and reveals the potential for an infinite series. Single leaf. Embossed print. Card. Edition of 20. Book of folds is part of AMBruno's One-Fold Books collection.