At the end of 2022 I finally managed to publish my first book ‘Fieldwork’. After dancing around the idea for several years it was the weirdness of COVID and lockdowns that gave me the space and time to think more deeply about what the book was really about and how to get it into realistic shape for printing. The enforced pause on making new work also helped me think of that body of work as ‘finished’ enough to commit to print (at least as a volume one).

The success of that book led me to I think it might be easier to finish the second more quickly. ‘Woodwork’ has always been intended as the partner to ‘Fieldwork’ and so lots of decisions are already made. I know the format, the paper stock, even the fonts. I have a lovely InDesign document that lets me move images around at will, a pile of test prints to shuffle around my desk or pin on my wall. I can (and have) spent many happy hours making version after version of the book that I’m happy with, convincing myself that I am making decisions and being productive, but also secretly aware that I am just repeatedly shuffling the same pack of cards and getting no closer to dealing them.

I need to get this finished by the end of March, with the hope of having it ready for sale during May, but I find self imposed deadlines the hardest to hit. The next few weeks is the time to be brutal and edit with a more dispassionate head on, but this time I’ll be doing it alongside the distractions of day to day retail gallery life and all the while heading into a busy time of year in the beach. MakingProperDecisions® is one of the things I am least good at. Wish me luck.