About our publications

Alec established morning star publications in 1990. The press specialised in publications involving collaborations between artists and poets. Morning star has continued to grow, extending its activities to artist books and publications relating to artists projects, including the award-winning pocketbooks series, a generalist survey of contemporary Scottish culture.

Alongside its associate imprint, platform projects, morning star has become a leading light in artist publishing in the UK. Co-publications have appeared with a number of prestigious institutions and art partners, including Liverpool University Press and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art; as well as innovative titles produced with non-art partners, such as Kielder Observatory.

History

In the first years the press specialised in publishing, collaborations between poets and artists (the morning star folios, series 1- series 6), and then extended its activities into artist books and publications relating to artist projects (anthology, passport, imagined lands). In 1999 Alec initiated a much more ambitious publishing project, the pocketbook series - a generalist survey of contemporary Scottish culture. The series combined innovative anthologies with collections of contemporary writers and artists such as David Shrigley, Hamish Fulton and Thomas A. Clark. The creative team which Alec had assembled to produce pocketbooks continued to work together under the name platform projects.

In 2002 Alec conceived a new project, the small press series, which was more focused on Alec's participation projects (Wind Blown Cloud, Bynames, Mesostic herbarium, turning toward living and The Book of Questions). These books were co-published by some of the institutions that Alec worked with; for instance, his artist residencies at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Following the completion of the small press series in 2005 Alec again refined his publishing practice and focused it on contemporary experiences of reading. The new series, bookscapes, is a cross media project which combines the book, audio CD, DVD and web.