In March 2003 Cass Holmes and Helen Beeken staged "Breaking the Surface", an exhibition at the Metropole Galleries in Folkestone. Helen approached me to write a note about the work she intended to show, explaining how it linked to her own early memories of the gallery space itself. When I came to write the text I found that a straight account did no justice to the things I wanted to say, and felt compelled to try something more ambitious, and in a way poetic.

Helen called the result a "response" to her work, which seemed fair enough. Its title also became the title of the exhibition itself. The text was published in a small brochure that went with the show, but Helen also felt inspired to frame the words in a self-made book, combining some of the fabrics, papers, inks and images she had used in the exhibition itself.

The next 15 pages offer a digital version of the book, though inevitably can give no real sense of its feel and only an approximation of its colours. The words may be a little hard to read in places so I've set the full original text below the images. I've tried to balance image quality against file size but if you have a slow internet connection you may need to be patient.

You'll find more about Helen's work on her website: www.helenbeeken.info

Click the arrow to view the book.