Amazingly, there are now ten books in the Modern Women Artists series, so it felt like a good time to take a moment to reflect on the creation of the series and how far we've come since Eiderdown Books started.
2019
The world was a very different place when we first set out to make these books, and after a year of setting up the business, designing the series, commissioning authors, editing manuscripts, working with artists estates and making sure the images we had were good enough, we launched the first five books simultaneously at a packed-out London Art Book Fair in September, just three months before the pandemic struck the UK.
2020/ 21
The publication of books 6 and 7 (EILEEN AGAR and NINA HAMNETT) were both pushed back as we tried to work out how on earth to publish books without any bookshops open for browsing and so they could coincide with two separate Covid-delayed exhibitions. They both ended up publishing at the start of 2021, just one month apart, with all of the launch activities and sales happening online.
2022
Book 8 (EILEEN MAYO) was our first book to launch post-pandemic at the beginning of 2022 and we were finally able to start holding live, in-person events with our authors again. Later that year we also published book 9 (LUCIE RIE) and started seeing all the books on display in bookshops and museum shops again.
2023
Book 10 (TIRZAH GARWOOD) - which had been originally announced as book number six but was postponed due to pandemic-related problems - is now available at the start of 2023 and completes the series so far.
The full series is available direct from Eiderdown Books here or ordered in by any bookshop.
We love to see them at home on your bookshelves. If you take a photo and share it, please tag us @eiderdownbooks or #EiderdownBooks on Instagram or Twitter.