Nine members of Artists' Book Club Dove met on Zoom on 9th April.

Bron has finished her big book of botanical ink-paintings, Essence of Trees, after being "head down in the studio for six weeks brewing up colours." She said that holding the book was "like holding a large dog on your lap; it's all legs!"

Carol has been playing with travel books

... and she has made a book of holes, monoprints and collaged pieces. It folds into an A4 cover, attached by stitching.

Janine has finished some books of family history.

Judith is taking part in a Greenhill Arts exhibition currently open in Moretonhampstead. Mainly small prints and paintings. Her giant book Microseasons of the Dart is on a plinth. Will it stand up for two months?

Judith has also made a very complicated box on a two-day workshop with expert tuition. The photo is a screenshot from a video; I apologise for the poor reproduction. It's a clever mechanism that lifts the book as you open the box.`

Immersed in The Waste Land centenary, I have been unproductive on the book front. But I hope to show Searching for Stetson next month.
After months of zooming (for which I'm very grateful) I long to hold and read all these books. Maybe next time if I'm well by then and if the infection rate locally has decreased. Our next meetings will be 14th May, 25th June and 23rd July.

April Dove-droppings

you pull this one out
you could easily lose things
where is that thread

wildflower seeds in the post
a little trouser-book
taking a colour for a walk

all the grandchildren
walkers and unexpected people
the most exciting thing

a bigger project than I thought
brimming with ideas
months of rest

fifteen pages of instructions
calculations and millimetres
in a village hall on Exmoor

specialist security advice
plans may have to change
my giant book on its kebab sticks

all afternoon scavenging
a wooden garden gate
rescued from the bonfire pile

symbols in lino
exquisite corpse
I don't do beautiful

splendor solis
noises off
perpetual choirs in the Abbey

Gog and Magog
and the seven grandmothers
have to blow it up

feed colours into
a splodge of gum Arabic
sloe-berries and walnuts