Land

by Antony Gormley, Clare Richardson, Jeanette Winterson

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Landmark Trust commissioned an installation from Antony Gormley. LAND was the this book records its places and explores their meanings. Author Jeanette Winterson and photographer Clare Richardson travelled to five Landmark sites in remote parts of the British Saddell Bay, Mull of Kintyre; South West Point, Lundy; Clavell Tower, Kimmeridge Bay; Martello Tower, Aldeburgh and Lengthsmans Cottage, Lowsonford to see Gormleys life-size cast iron sculptures. Winterson has written a meditation in response to the works and landscapes she has encountered. This celebratory text is accompanied by Richardsons photographs of the varied seascapes and waterways and weather conditions that the sculptures inhabit.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

108 pages, Hardcover

First published July 7, 2016

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published to mark the 50th anniversary of The Landmark Trust, a charity which preserves notable buildings and makes them available for holidays (and very reasonably priced they are too, especially out of peak holiday season!). Between May 2015 and May 2016 five of Antony Gormley's life size cast iron sculptures were placed at five sites in the UK. This book shows images by Claire Richardson of the sculptures accompanied by words from Jeanette Winterson, a meditation on the places, sculptures, art objects in general and the temporariness of the human body (and pretty much everything else). A short book that would be easy to come back to time and again.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeanette Winterson Gem
Review of the Landmark Trust hardcover (2016)

This is a lovely gem of a hardcover that documents an Antony Gormley sculpture commission to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Landmark Trust organization of historical building restorations and rentals in the UK.

Due to alphabetical credit listing, sculptor Gormley has top billing, followed by photographer Clare Richardson and only then by Jeanette Winterson who is the writer of the descriptive essays.

Winterson's text is as evocative and passionate about art and the environment as any of her non-fiction that I have read. It reminded me especially of her rather thrilling opening essay about art and painting in her Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery (1996).

My thanks to Liisa and Martin & family for this lovely gift!

Trivia and Links
The Land project consisted of 5 temporary installations of sculpted humanoid figures placed nearby to Landmark sites. You can see some of the sculptures in photographs here.

There is a video about the project here.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Landmark Trust is known for its carefully curated holiday home bookshelves and this volume was an obvious inclusion for Saddell Castle. It's really an essay by Jeanette Winterson about the Land project with additions by the sculptor Antony Gormley, and photographs. For a charity which focuses on rescuing and restoring buildings, it was an interesting choice to celebrate its 50th anniversary - modern sculpture, of human figures in blocky style, not intended to be permanently located close to Landmarks.

That was the slight trouble with the book - Winterson's there lauding the impermanence, whilst outside remains the figure which so enhances the experience of being at Saddell. It was great to read more about the different figures.

[Liz Lefroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most beautiful book I have read all year.