I was rearranging my studio bookshelf today and got caught up in my collection of Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine books. They are truly treasured art objects, stunning examples of paper construction, illustration and storytelling for grown-ups. If you are unfamiliar with the series, it began with Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence and culminated in the sixth book a few years ago, The Morning Star: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine is Illuminated.

The stories are told through gorgeously written and illustrated postcards and letters between a London artist, Griffin, and Sabine, a woman living on a tropical island in the South Pacific. Somehow she is able to “see” what Griffin is drawing and writes a postcard to him out of the blue, describing the image he’s made. This is the start of a mysterious and touching story of their growing interconnectedness. Nick’s mixed media style, incorporating stamps, found images, ephemera and rich swathes of paint never ceases to inspire me. I have become a bit of a collector, I guess. I got so caught up in the story, I bought The Artful Dodger: Images and Reflections, a fantastic collection of Nick’s work over decades and even an interactive game based on the Griffin and Sabine books called Ceremony of Innocence.

Now I hear tell that Nick has illustrated Peter Ackroyd’s retelling of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. He has made elegant and spare, mainly black and white, images that expose a lot of white background, in contrast to the complex layered images he often makes. To see examples of these new illustrations and to learn more about Nick’s work, including his workshops, visit his website.