Jessie Chorley

‘From a young age making things was a huge part of my life, and this is where my making of books began. My mother has a huge cottage garden and I kept amongst other scrapbooks and journals, a garden diary. We collected all the different plants and flowers from each season. The result being this huge book full of plants stuck together with tape and bound with ribbons. I still have these books kept piled up at my mum’s cottage, preserving a little bit of heaven, my childhood, and they are an important influence on my work today.

Making books is a process that I have continued since my childhood. I am interested in getting involved in the intimacy and physicality that the book provides, and as a form allows me to explore my ongoing concern with narrative. Surroundings, places, times and memories of both past and present are key factors in my making process. What experiences surround me at the time of making my work is incredibly important.

My journals are designed to be more of a functional object. I am interested in the ‘journal’ as an object that represents the ‘journey’. I like the thought that whoever owns one of my altered journals carries on the already existing journey that this book has been on.

I graduated in 2005 with a degree in textiles from Goldsmiths College University, London. My main focus since graduating has been to concentrate on exploring my subject matter deeper and evolving my sculptural and installation based work, as well as promoting my journals.’