Collections in Dialogue: Artist Co-Commission, Leeds Art Gallery

The British Library and Leeds Art Gallery seek to commission an artist or artist collective based in the Yorkshire and Humber area. The selected artist or artist collective will be invited to engage with collections at both institutions as a catalyst to produce new work that creates a dialogue between them. The commission will form the third iteration of the Collections in Dialogue artist co-commission project.

The focus will be on exploring the collection of artists' books held at the British Library alongside works in Leeds Museums and Galleries' sculpture collection that employ the medium of the book as a raw sculptural material or incorporate text within the sculptural object. The collection of artists' books in the Henry Moore Institute Research Library Special Collections will also be available for the selected artist or artist collective to access.

The commissioned work should seek to link the collections in some way - through medium, concept, theme or otherwise. We are open to proposals from artists working in any medium. It is anticipated that the new work produced will include an artist's book or books in an edition. However, this does not necessarily need to form the main focus of the work produced and we are interested in responses which include outcomes across different media, both physical and digital. Proposals are welcome from those who have not previously produced artists' books as part of their practice but have a demonstrable interest in the medium. As part of the final exhibition the commissioned artist or artist collective will have the opportunity to select items from the collections for display alongside their own work.

The artist fee for the project is £11,000 and there is a budget of £9,000 for materials to realise the project, along with additional resources to cover other expenses. If an artist collective is successful, the fee is to be split equally among all members.