The Magic of Skye by W.A. Poucher was originally published in 1949 and consists of 149 photographs taken by the author. This cloth-bound volume documents Poucher’s personal journey to Skye with the aim of highlighting ‘the strange loveliness of this marvellous isle’ to the reader.
Stezaker stages an intervention to a single plate of this book, by adding a distorted rectangle to an image of mountaineers surveying the peak of Sgurr Dearg. Corresponding to the artist’s Tabula Rasa series made since the 1980s, this area of white space disrupts the landscape and recalls a cinematic projection screen. By altering the image by hand, Stezaker aims to open up the viewer’s engagement with the book and imbue the image with poetic resonance.
The signed, modified volume is presented in a custom-made and editioned slipcase.