Guy Begbie and I have finished the main manufacture of our new piece, Dialogue with Bob Cobbing. It was discussed and planned over a lengthy period at the start of the summer. Now the necessary prints have been made on a variety of media and in a variety of formats. It was assembled over a few hours last week to identify potential  unforeseen assembly problems; and photographically documented  to enable consistent reassembly.

Necessary adjustments were made and it will be fully assembled in the Sheppard Library in Hendon (University of Middlesex) and then left on display there from 3rd September 2012 for 18 days, until Friday 21st September 2012.

The full list of what else we shall display in the exhibition is yet to be finally agreed; but we do expect to show Brochs and to show again Namely and Namely unnamed.

Photographs of the exhibition will be published in due course.

For anyone unfamiliar with Cobbing, we have written the following:

Bob Cobbing in Hendon

In the first half of the 1950s, the late Bob Cobbing (1920 – 2002) was what we might now call an arts activist in Hendon.

The organisations which he co-founded and through which he worked included what later became Group H (painting), The London Film-Makers Coop (which lasted till near the end of the last century) and Writers Forum, an organisation which is still active today under the direction of Lawrence Upton. These organisations, and there were more, have been in various ways extremely influential and productive.

At one time, they were all grouped under the name “Hendon Arts Together” of which Cobbing was the Secretary.

Cobbing was, amongst other things, a prolific maker and publisher of largely hand-made artistic books although he resisted the title artists books. His egalitarian approach ensured that they were available at consistently low prices. His craftspersonly invention ensured that he encouraged creative imitation.

His work has had a profound effect upon the art of Guy Begbie and Lawrence Upton; and their new work Dialogue with Bob Cobbing is a tribute to him near the tenth anniversary of his death (29^th September) using elements of his style and process in their work.