It was a Chinese woodblock-printed book that first attracted Susie to the idea of making a book: its concertina format so ideal for display, its page design so different from that of a western book, the whole enclosed in covers of silk and tucked into a slipcase. This book was a tactile, beautiful object. From imitations of such books to infinite variations on the concertina and other formats, Susie makes one-off books featuring abstract mountain landscapes, poetry and calligraphy, that complement her large oil paintings and works on Chinese paper.
Susie’s passion for all things Chinese grew out of a spell in Hong Kong and an editorial career in books on Chinese art and archaeology. A graduate of St Andrews and the Courtauld Institute of Art, she completed her formal training in calligraphy under artist Donald Jackson.
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Gallery
Solo shows:
- On high hills (2023), Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
- Reopening (2021), Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
- Library (2020, online only), Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
- One never quite knows the mountain … (2017), Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
- The Living Mountain (2015), Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
- The One Life (2012) and The Word on Wood (2011), Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
- Into the mountain, (2016), &Collective Gallery, Bridge of Allan
Selected group shows:
- On the same page, with bound : unbound, Upright Gallery, Edinburgh (2025)
- Endless mystery, Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay (2025)
- covered . discovered, with the SSI and Designer Bookbinders, Crafts Council Gallery, London (2024)
- Scottish Landscape Awards 2023 – 2024, City Art Centre, Edinburgh
- Evoke/Provoke, Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay, (2024)
- Pattern : Books, Upright Gallery, Edinburgh (2022)
- On Sonorous Seas, An Tobar and Mull Theatre and Shona Reid Gallery, Glasgow School of Art (2022)
- Words made beautiful, with the SSI, Mall Galleries, London (2021)
- bound : unbound, & Gallery, Edinburgh (2018)
- Encounter, Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay (2018)
- Up on the mountain and down by the river, Upright Gallery, Edinburgh (2018)
- The Word-Hoard, curated by Robert Macfarlane, Wordsworth House Museum, Cockermouth, Cumbria (2017)
- Orchestra of letters, Snape Maltings, Suffolk (2017)
- Divine Inspiration, with the SSI at York Minster (2016)
- Words Set Free, London, Sunderland, Bruges (2012 – 13)
- Celebrate Calligraphy, London, Sunderland, Halifax (2011 – 12)
- The Wych Elm Project, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2009)
- The Saint John’s Bible, V&A, London (2006)
- RSA, RSW, SSA and VAS annual exhibitions (various, 2006 – 18).
Awards include the Pax Christi Award (2023), W Gordon Smith Award (VAS, 2018), ECA Library Prize (RSA, 2015), the Morton Fraser Award (VAS, 2013) and the Nancy Graham Memorial Book Award (VAS, 2011).
Susie’s work is held in the collections of the British Museum; Corpus Christi College, Oxford; Edinburgh Central Library; Edinburgh College of Art Library, University of Edinburgh; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; National Library of Scotland; National Museums Scotland; and the Royal Collection. Susie is a Fellow of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators and is based in Edinburgh. Her calligraphy features on all four RBS polymer banknotes.
Susie is available for commissions.