Many of the images in this work are culled from Ladybird Books. This was a series of illustrated books for small children that told not only fairy tales and stories, but they also published books that related to everyday jobs, how things work and historic events. A series of learning-to-read books focussing on the lives of Peter and Jane was a staple of British classrooms in the 1960s. 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