
The first of our new Irregulars Online series of essays on aspects of art and design history. Taras Young explores the story - including the designs and music - behind the UK's switch to decimal currency, 50 years ago this month.
Irregulars OnlineThe first of our new Irregulars Online series of essays on aspects of art and design history. Taras Young explores the story - including the designs and music - behind the UK's switch to decimal currency, 50 years ago this month.
Irregulars OnlineWhile stocks last, we’re sending a snazzy Four Corners Books enamel pin, designed by John Morgan, to customers spending over £30 on our website. UK deliveries only, and will be applied automatically to eligible orders.
A new book surveying the manuals, pamphlets, posters and ephemera from the Cold War about Britain’s readiness — or not — for nuclear attack.
Nuclear War In The UKWritten by See Red members, detailing the group’s history, the book features their brilliant screenprints from the 1970s and 1980s.
See Red Women’s Workshop: Feminist Posters 1974-1990Some of the most striking – and joyful – American art of the 60s, made while the artist was living as a Catholic nun in California.
Come Alive! The Spirited Art Of Sister CoritaA new book bringing together a wonderful group of posters made in the 1970s and 1980s for housing campaigns, political protests, festivals and gigs.
Posters from Paddington PrintshopFor the second book in the Irregulars series, David Clarke has selected material from the Ministry of Defence’s UFO Desk, now held at The National Archives, to present the remarkable stories behind these images, including alien craft on the A1, flying saucers over Hampstead, and a spaceship landing at a primary school.
UFO Drawings From The National ArchivesWe asked William Hogan and David Titlow about their experience of Citizens Band Radio Culture of the 1980s, and more specifically the Eyeball Cards: the business cards of ‘breakers’ exchanged when meeting up in person after chatting on the airwaves.
A CB Radio Q&AWe’re proud to introduce our newest project, one that we’ve been beavering away at for over a year now: Four Corners Irregulars, a series of books presenting a new look at the history of modern British visual culture.
We have chosen a wide range of different subjects, ranging from politics to hobbies, and stretching from 1945 to the present day. All are linked by the remarkable visual creativity in Britain beyond art galleries and museums. Some of the work we feature is by artists working outside of the gallery context and some was made by people who didn’t consider themselves artists at all.
The first volume is by William Hogan and David Titlow, about Eyeball Cards, the mysterious business cards created by CB radio enthusiasts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ‘Breakers’ would chat over the airwaves at a time when the technology was yet to be legalised and would create handles for themselves to help keep their identity a secret. The result is a window into an outpouring of creativity that prefigures online identities – social media personas from before the internet.
Read about Irregular #1, Eyeball CardsAt Four Corners Books we seek to bring art history to life. Our aim is to explore unfamiliar corners of visual history, share the stories we find, and publish them as well as we can.
Run by Richard Embray and Elinor Jansz, we’ve been making books since 2003. Our aim is to create a space to reflect on artists and creative outputs from our recent past that have often been overlooked. It’s our mission to champion this creativity, in an accessible way.
We’re interested in those hidden pockets of art that can spark a bit of joy. Books that can amuse or educate, challenge or intrigue, delight or provoke. They are more than books about art. They are a way to experience it.
Our office is currently closed due to Coronavirus restrictions, so we are only picking up postal and telephone communications irregularly. Please contact us by email in the first instance.
Four Corners Books
56 Artillery Lane
London E1 7LS
hello@fourcornersbooks.co.uk
+44 (0)20 7247 8948
Four Corners Books, registered charity 1125471. Registered company 6591195. Company limited by guarantee, registered in England.
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Design by John Morgan studio
Programming by Benedict de Silva
Pictures by Four Corners Books