Working on the Modern Scottish Women catalogue was a challenge because of the short lead time. The show, at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh (until 26 June), was agreed about a year before the scheduled opening date, which meant that arranging the show was going to take a huge effort. To add to this, an impressive 45 artists are included, many of whom are largely unknown to the public.
As production time was limited, we decided to ask a number of leading authorities on these lesser-known artists to write entries for us, which involved a lot of coordination between them, the lead curator of the show and the publishing team. The book was ready in time for the opening, with texts sent to the publishing department in June and the last piece arriving in September, a month before publication date.
An important factor was that the curator decided we would present these women’s stories in a factual manner, neither endorsing nor criticising their treatment or views. It would be up to readers to draw their own conclusions.
One of the key issues in publishing is accuracy of text, so to verify the facts and stories included in the project the curator circulated them for peer review and contacted family members where possible. The three curators working on the show also spent many hours in the library and various archives.
All was going to plan on the production and, despite it being a multiple-artist exhibition, we felt we had chosen a strong cover image. It was hard to pick the right image, particularly as the show spans many years. However, we discovered that the National Portrait Gallery in London was using the image we had chosen in a fashion book that was launching a few weeks before our show – not ideal at all. We had to change it.
Many discussions were had about the new image and as an all- woman publishing team we did not want to market yet another fey young woman. Perhaps the image we’ve chosen (above) is just that, but as it was the key marketing image we have at least presented a unified visual message about the book and show.
Is it the right message? Well, visitors are still coming to the shows and the book is selling. We did try a vox pop on Twitter with a few of the proposed covers to build some interest in the book, and we discovered people either loved this painting or hated it.
Christine Thompson is the commissioning publisher for NGS Publishing at National Galleries of Scotland
As production time was limited, we decided to ask a number of leading authorities on these lesser-known artists to write entries for us, which involved a lot of coordination between them, the lead curator of the show and the publishing team. The book was ready in time for the opening, with texts sent to the publishing department in June and the last piece arriving in September, a month before publication date.
An important factor was that the curator decided we would present these women’s stories in a factual manner, neither endorsing nor criticising their treatment or views. It would be up to readers to draw their own conclusions.
One of the key issues in publishing is accuracy of text, so to verify the facts and stories included in the project the curator circulated them for peer review and contacted family members where possible. The three curators working on the show also spent many hours in the library and various archives.
All was going to plan on the production and, despite it being a multiple-artist exhibition, we felt we had chosen a strong cover image. It was hard to pick the right image, particularly as the show spans many years. However, we discovered that the National Portrait Gallery in London was using the image we had chosen in a fashion book that was launching a few weeks before our show – not ideal at all. We had to change it.
Many discussions were had about the new image and as an all- woman publishing team we did not want to market yet another fey young woman. Perhaps the image we’ve chosen (above) is just that, but as it was the key marketing image we have at least presented a unified visual message about the book and show.
Is it the right message? Well, visitors are still coming to the shows and the book is selling. We did try a vox pop on Twitter with a few of the proposed covers to build some interest in the book, and we discovered people either loved this painting or hated it.
Christine Thompson is the commissioning publisher for NGS Publishing at National Galleries of Scotland
