A new exhibition, curated by our good friend Nick Hand, opens tomorrow at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey.

Nick has curated this exhibition of stories recorded from his travels across Britain, Ireland, Naples and New York’s Hudson Valley, mostly on a bicycle. Starting in 2009, Nick cycled over 6,000 miles around the coast of Britain and Ireland, making over 100 films of people he met along the way. Since that journey, he has cycled 500 miles along the Hudson Valley; visited craftspeople across the UK as photographer and judge for the Balvenie Craft Awards; cycled around the coast of the Isle of Skye; visited heritage craftspeople in Naples; and, most recently, cycled from Land’s End to John o’Groats on the printing bike, stopping in places known for making one particular thing and collecting stories for the people dedicated to those crafts and trades.

The exhibition is a 10-year retrospective of Nick’s collection of stories of craft, and brings to rural Devon an important collection of stories from the craftsmen and women in the UK; ranging from a stickmaker in Lincolnshire to a coppersmith at the Balvenie Distillery on Speyside; from a printer in Shipley to a storyteller in County Down. Journeyman re-tells and reveals these nearly lost crafts – some quickly fading from our heritage – through photography, films, letterpress prints and words.

Journeyman – stories of craft from a bicycle runs 18th January – 8 March 2020, and is open daily between 10.30am & 5.30pm with free admission. You can find more information here.