Scrawl Too

Book excerpt: Rachel Whiteread is one of the most acclaimed British artists of her generation. Yet, despite the fact that she has been the subject of consistent press coverage since being awarded the prestigious Turner Prize in 1993 -- & that her work openly articulates emotional themes -- there has been limited public exposure of the personality behind the work, & her sources of inspiration as an artist. Rachel's Book is far more than a conventional monograph, offering Whiteread the opportunity to present her work in published form for the first time. It is an artwork in its own right. Continuing in the spirit of the celebrated 'anti-monograph' he produced with Damien Hirst, publisher Edward Booth-Clibborn has given Whiteread free rein to expand the idea of how an artistic vision may be 'captured' on the printed page. As the theme for Rachel's Book, the artist has chosen 'home'. But Whiteread is less interested in describing what home means, more in how it feels. Using innovative production effects, the book articulates her personal response through images, textures, colours, smells, sounds & emotional references, which the artist has sourced over the course of several years. Rachel's Book is an emotive & evocative extension of Whiteread's celebrated series of pieces on a domestic theme. These 'spatial negative' sculptures -- unique casts of forgotten spaces under furniture, & most memorably, the entire space inside a derelict house in London's East End -- are the artworks that first brought her to international attention. Designed by North.