Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia & Friends

Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia & Friends is the first book to document the LYC Museum & Art Gallery in Banks, Cumbria between 1972 and 1983, and accompanied an exhibition of the same name at Kettles Yard gallery. The book establishes Li's work at the LYC as a form of worldmaking, connecting his cosmic conceptual art practice to his interest in participation and friendship, as well as his engagement with nature and the landscape. A curatorial account is accompanied by nine short texts – by artists, writers and others who were part of the ever-changing LYC community – that trace the diverse threads and ramifications of Li's practice historically and into the present. The book’s design is inspired by the eclectic vernacular and DIY production of Li’s ‘LYC Press’ publishing output, with different typefaces, paper stocks and colours creating a sense of the plurality of the LYC and its DIY approach. Handwritten notes by Li journalling his reflections on the LYC – printed on golden yellow, as we found them in the museum archives – are interspersed throughout the book, a narration of the museum’s progress from beginning to end. Guest-written ‘vignettes’ are printed on pastel shades which mimic the office stationary often used in LYC Press publications and other printed ephemera. The cover shows an image of Li in his studio amongst a cosmic display of his trademark hanging discs, overprinted with a colour gradient that echoes Li’s own hand-tinted photographic work, and suggests a transition from one world to another. Trimmed flush to reveal a greyboard core, its materiality, like the rest of the book, references the DIY nature of the LYC. In collaboration with Hannah Montague Edited by Hammad Nasar, Sarah Victoria Turner and Amy Tobin