Arachne Press: Ten years of Book Cover Art

Online Exhibition Catalogue

Arachne Press is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and with it, successful collaborations with artists on the covers of their books. We will be holding an exhibition with our long time collaborators the Stephen Lawrence Gallery in Greenwich SE10. from January 19th to February 15th, with a private view on the evening of January 18th.

The Gallery is at

10 Stockwell Street London SE10 9BD accessed via the University of Greenwich reception next door – there is a door, but it is for fire escape only! The Gallery is open Tuesday-Friday: 11am-5pm Saturday: 11am-4pm

We will be exhibiting some of the original art that was licenced/ commissioned, and for the commissions, some of the drafts the work went through to end up with the cover, and some of the objects that inspired covers.

Back in 2012 all the publishing chat was about how eBooks were going to replace print, but Arachne founder Cherry Potts was certain that all that would disappear would be ugly, badly made books.

Right from the start the intention was that Arachne’s books would be beautiful, and that where possible, artists would be used, and the cover image would wrap all the way round the book.

When choosing a manuscript, if Cherry starts planning the cover before she’s finished reading, the book is almost certainly going to be published, which means that the search for the right artist is as important as the search for new writing.

Initially that meant licencing existing images, but quickly moved on to commissioning as well. Arachne Press has worked with some of our artists regularly, [Kevin Threlfall, Fiona Humphrey, Gordy Wright]  others have been suggested by the authors for a particular project [Paul Summers, Camille Smethwick, Rachel Marsh]; and sometimes, when the image in her head is so clear nothing else will do, Cherry rolls up her sleeves and makes a cover herself. For more details of all our cover artists take a look at our artists page.

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