Recently published by Polygon, 'The Spirit of Jura' includes a visual chapter of drawings created by David Faithfull, recording the collaboration with the writer John Burnside on the Isle of Jura on the west coast of Scotland, during the summer of 2008. This project was funded by the Scottish Book Trust with additional sponsorship from the Jura Distillery.
Having been on a reconnaissance trip earlier in the summer David collected a supply of Jura oak galls, which he duly transformed into oak gall ink by following an old medieval recipe similar to that used to make the ink for the Book of Kells.
The ink was then dispatched, together with a few hand crafted hebridean reed pens, to John on Jura in order to aid the collaborative process and give the writer the opportunity to reassess the writing and actual calligraphic act.
The artist and writer then met up on Jura and spent a week developing the ideas further, informed by various trips to rhe very particular mountain wildernesses of this remote island. In addition to the Spirit of Jura publication, the project is currently evolving into a series of artists books/multiples based on these developments.
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