A Passion for Picture books

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‘Although interest in the art of the picture book seems to have grown greatly in recent years, study of the field has remained polarised in its nature and perceptions,’ claim the authors of an important new book, Children’s Picturebooks: The art of visual storytelling.

Books for Keeps invited co-writers Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles to explain their aim to bring together ideas from the world of literature and education with ideas from the field of art and design.

Although interest in the art of the picture book seems to have grown greatly in recent years, study of the field has remained somewhat polarised in its nature and perceptions. The picture book straddles a number of fields and the act of its creation is often referred to as a hybrid art. Critics and academics tend to come from the field of literature and education while makers come from the field of art and design. Even the latter is not really easy to categorise, stretching as it does, so widely across the fine and applied arts. Criticism and analysis will inevitably focus on the finished, published artefact whilst the process of making (the words ‘writing’ or ‘illustrating’ are inadequate in this context) is what interests the art student and art-based researcher.

In co-authoring this book we wanted to try to bring these worlds a little closer together. We both work in the city of Cambridge as, respectively, Professor of Illustration at Cambridge School of Art (in Anglia Ruskin University) and Professor of Children’s Poetry at the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. Each of us has a passion for picture books, albeit coming from very different backgrounds and perspectives. And for a number of years we have been bringing our respective masters and PhD students together in shared research seminars and group critiques, lecturing to each other’s students and co-supervising research students. And inevitably talking about all sorts of other projects such as someday writing a book together, which we have finally managed to do.

Of course we disagree about all sorts of things, have completely different tastes in artists and writers, but constantly learn from each other and from each other’s students, as well from our own. The book attempts to look very broadly at the practice and theory of the picture book, as distinct from illustrated books in general, and at its role as an important aspect of the culture of any society. We explore the history of the picture book, the concept of the book as a work of art, the relationship between the book and the child, the key synergies between word and image, practical aspects of developing and making picture books, notions of ‘suitability’ for children across different cultures and we take a look at the global children’s publishing industry. Much of the book is taken up with case studies of projects by both students and well-known creators – again from a range of cultures.

Laurence King Publishing specialises in books on art and architecture and is known for attention to standards of design and production. This is very important when creating a book about a sumptuous visual world, where the physical and aesthetic experience of holding and page turning is so important. So many academics books on the subject have tried to discuss this visual, tactile medium whilst being obliged to reproduce images in black and white half tone on poor quality, flimsy wartime standard paper.

We are also indebted to the tireless work of colleague and renowned illustrator, Pam Smy, in chasing publishing companies and artists around the world for permission to reproduce full colour examples from their books. And it is an extra thrill to have a bespoke cover design by Paris based Italian, Beatrice Alemagna, one of the most celebrated and award laden picture book artists in the world – worshipped in France, Italy and the Far East but sadly all too rarely published in the English speaking world.

We hope that this study is most of all a celebration of a fascinating, evolving art form, where literature and the visual arts converge, visual literature perhaps? Not a scholarly treatise or a ‘how-to’ book but a tour through a richly diverse world that we first encounter as small people but one which many of us are increasingly revisiting in later life.

Children’s Picturebooks: The art of visual storytelling by Martin Salisbury with Morag Styles (978 1 8566 9738 5) is published by Laurence King at £22.50 pbk.