As our seasonal contemplations continue, printmaker Nick Hand celebrates the UK’s libraries — many of which he visited on his printing bike this year.

“My dad grew up in Ealing, Greenford, in the thirties. And the library was everything to him. He would choose books for his mum. Libraries were his learning. He was always passionate about education and libraries were his thing. Even into old age, the first thing he did was find out where the local library was. So when he passed away, one of the jobs I had to do was to take his library books back. But the range of library books he had, there was one about the railways, one about local history, then some fiction. So yeah, the idea of cycling round libraries, the idea of that knowledge, sharing human experience, that’s why I had to come here today.” — Gill speaking at Stevenage Library.

This Summer and Autumn I cycled between libraries, up and down and across the country. I travelled on my handmade bicycle with a small letterpress Adana printing press mounted on the back, along with associated type, printing blocks, ink and board to print on. At each library I printed a set of bookmarks: each set with an image or words by someone with a present or past connection to that library. There were also stories collected from each library (like the one above).

Many of the several thousand bookmarks ended up being printed in the libraries by visitors or librarians. Sometimes children (standing on a chair) or older folk (sitting on the chair). It is somehow serendipity to be surrounded by books and then putting ink on a press and showing people the six-hundred-year-old process by which many have been made. To children it is a magic trick that they have somehow been part of.

As well as borrowing books, libraries are places to meet; places to keep warm (maybe have a nap); places to mend things; to see archives; to study; to use a computer (or to learn how to use one); to read a newspaper; or to join a group and discuss a writer or poet. They are places of escape and sanctuary. They are like houses and have their own atmosphere — sometimes warm, welcoming and friendly (mostly), and occasionally a little formal and austere (also nice I think).

The journeys gave me time and space to spend with old friends and new. I visited some beautiful community printing hubs in Scotland and the islands. I spent many hours alone on my bicycle, remembering the simple pleasure of being on a bicycle carrying everything that you need to get by.

The challenge of fitting a poem or image into 39x160mm bookmark was interesting and one which the little press seemed to enjoy. Bookmarks are brilliant really; it’s always nice to find an ancient bookmark hidden in a second hand book, perhaps from some long-gone bookshop.

I called this little adventure Press On and it took me from my home in Bristol to London, and then later from Manchester to Sheffield and then from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and on to Orkney and Shetland.

Each Wednesday, I visit Henleaze library in Bristol with my little three year-old grandson Harry. He scurries around looking for the little fluffy dog hidden in the children’s section and then finding books with a ‘yep’ or a ’nope’ for each. I’m imagining and hoping he’ll have his own lifetime of visiting his local library.  But we shouldn’t take them for granted and must keep that little library card safe in our pockets: it’s a precious thing, much like the libraries.