BOOKS / transport yourself through the ages, 2007
26th October 1964
Dear Richard & Arthur,
An opportunity of great discovery is about to embark and you are guaranteed a place onboard this fantastic journey. Today’s technology and industry have allowed more time to be gained through mechanised mass production and the machines that are manufactured.
A modern, British Rail, diesel locomotive recently combined “luxury with speed” and achieved a journey from Bristol to Paddington in only 87 minutes.
Understanding the now is only part of the process that can and will enrich your stay between stops. Recognising directions along your journey pointing to “new vistas” and to some of man’s earliest “conquests of his environment” is indeed essential knowledge to reaching your destination.
Imagine that you are on an aeroplane buckling yourself in safely, calm and confident, the date is 17th of December 1903. The aeroplane, the first of its kind with an engine, designed and built by yourself and your brother. The fourth and last flight of the morning, you start the engine and the aircraft sets to the air, the flight lasts for 59 seconds and you have flown 852 feet. A world record has been achieved and you made it.
Fear of failure has the power to prevent you from fulfilling our potential. You were that pilot and in those moments in which you believed, the transference from believing to reality was made and like a pencil tracing of an original artwork you became part of the experience, giving your life force to the past and your future self.
You are extraordinarily important people. If only you knew how significant you will become and how resonant your work will be to me, young and old whose lives are transported through your depiction and descriptions.
The time we have gained, through modern industrial processes, has been stored and we can, in the future, travel, in authentic style, to any time we choose; without you this will not be possible.
Kind regards
Ivan.
[Credit and appreciation to Brooke Bond’s ‘Transport Through the Ages’ picture card book, illustrated by Richard Ward & described by Arthur G. Bourne, 1966]
Transport Yourself Through The Ages... is inkjet printed on 80gsm Sylvan recycled paper in a numbered edition of 50 copies, Black & White, bound with bolts. The cover is inkjet colour printed on card, double-sided. Each book includes one original traced drawing (see image above).
60 pages, A5 (148.5 x 210 mm) London, October 2007 Price: £30 (excl. postage) To order this item please click here.
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