Itoqqippoq

Nancy Campbell

Itoqqippoq

Bird Editions, Oxford: 2014

Itoqqippoq means ‘washing line’ in Greenlandic. The narrative of this book is created from a series of photographs of a frozen washing line observed in Ilulissat, West Greenland. In the Arctic, laundry is left out to freeze-dry all year round, but these sheets were dancing in the wind – a sign of spring. 

Itoqqippoq was undertaken during a residency at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, and was printed at the Centre for Fine Print Research, Bristol, on an Epson Stylus Pro 9600.

Edition limited to 50 signed and numbered copies. 14 pages, 14.5 x 14.5 cm. Concertina binding by Manuel Mazzotti of London, in turquoise Wibalin Buckram with white foil-blocked boards.

(£20.00)

Archaeology & Environment in the Scoresby Sund Fjord

Hanne Tuborg Sandell and Birgir Sandell

Archaeology & Environment in the Scoresby Sund Fjord: Ethno-Archaeological Investigations of the Last Thule Culture of Northeast Greenland

Meddelelser om Grønland, Man & Society 15. Museum Tusculanum Press, Denmark: 1991

In 1982, because of surveying for oil in Northeast Greenland, Kalaallit Nunaata Katersugaasivia / Grønlands Landsmuseum began a series of surveys in the area to bring the mapping of archaeological sites up to date. The subsequent excavation of a winter dwelling from the last Thule Eskimo settlement in the area is the subject of this book. The first section describes the natural conditions and living resources of the area, and is followed by a short historical/archaeological review of Northeast Greenland. Next, the results of the excavation are presented. There follows a section on the material and cultural development and adjustments made by the present population of the Scoresby Sund area, as regards ecology and resources.  Theories are put forward to describes patterns of resource exploitation, mobility, seasonal movements, etc. for the people living in the last Thule culture in the Scoresby Sund area. Opportunities for contact with European Whalers and other cultural developments are also discussed.

Typical illustrations include ‘rose root pickled in blubber’, ‘drop beads’ and ‘snow knives’.

Paperback, 152 pages, 26.4 x 19 cm, black and white illustrations.

ISBN 9788763512084

(£30.00)

Alpine Spoilers

Kate Morrell
Alpine Spoilers
Published on the occasion of Armitt Museum and Library's centenary for Sublime Transactions, this book is the artist's response to the archive of The Fell & Rock Climbing Club (FRCC) of the English Lake District. The book appropriates text from a collection of mountaineering memoirs in the FRCC archives, held in the Armitt Library in Ambleside. These books are first-hand accounts of expeditions in the English Lakes, the Alps, the Himalayas and further afield, from the Victorian era to the present day. Alpine Spoilers contains an edit of the last paragraphs from over 500 books in which the author summarises the experience and creates a poignant finale.
120 pages, black and white illustrations.
Paperback, printed and bound by Ditto Press, published by the author: 2012
(£10.00)

The Man In The Ice

Konrad Spindler
The Man In The Ice
Weidenfeld and Nicolson: London, 1994
This accessible account of the discovery of a prehistoric body in the Ötztaler Alps on the Austrian-Hungarian Border in 1991 is written by the leader of the scientific investigation, a chair of prehistory and early history at the University of Innsbruck. The perfectly preserved body and associated artefacts from the Neolithic period were revealed as a result of glacial retreat. The body sparked wide popular interest and was soon named 'Ötzi' by the world's media. As well as recording the complex scientific and criminal procedures involved in the investigation, the author documents the wider cultural offshoots of the discovery, including contemporary newspaper cartoons (to which he takes a dispassionate approach). The Ötzi Archive, which likewise seeks what can be salvaged from global ice melt, and strives to preserve these artefacts in turn, is proud to be the Iceman's namesake.
306 pages, with 32 pages of colour illustrations and 23 line drawings.
(£1.50)