Many of images in this work are culled from The Eagle, a boys’ comic first published in 1950 whose main story featured Dan Dare, a character closely modelled on the archetypal British war hero. He did not drink or swear, he only fired in self defence and he always told the truth. The artist has commented on her work’ I am a natural hoarder. I want to use, re-use and use again. Recycling my accumulated wealth of paper – life’s fragments – is the perfect vehicle for expression. Decay, erosion and ageing are major inspirations, Much of my work uses elements reclaimed from my own past, which may evoke a sympathetic resonance in the viewer’s memory. Papier mâché is also a mysterious medium. When I began it appeared to me to be a craft steeped in history, a sort of alchemy, by which, using ancient recipes, the discarded and unconsidered could be processed into the new and exciting.

Reclaimed Recycling in contemporary British Crafts and Design, The British Council, London 1999