BOOKMORPHS: Artists’ Books from Greece & the UK

Tuesday 14 Oct 2025 – Friday 28 Nov 2025

The interactive exhibition BOOKMORPHS: Artists’ Books from Greece & the UK brings together a diverse selection of artists’ books, book works, book-art objects, limited and multiple editions, ephemera, and journals by 44 visual artists, curators, publishers, and theorists from both Greece and the UK. It marks the first comprehensive presentation in London of contemporary artists’ books by Greek and British visual artists in dialogue. 

BOOKMORPHS borrows its title from a term used by art writer Michael Hampton and aims to foster dialogue and exchange between Greek and British artists. 

Showcasing a wide range of techniques and media – painting, printmaking, drawing, writing, poetry, digital printing, cutting, bookbinding, sculpture, sound, and photography – the exhibition highlights the rich materiality and experimental nature of the book as an artistic form. 

What happens when a book’s legibility is disrupted? BOOKMORPHS invites audiences to engage with books through unconventional forms of ‘reading’: holding, touching, activating. Here, books transform into vehicles of unique, interactive experiences, allowing visitors to explore the anatomy of the book and connect more intimately with its content. 

In re-examining the meaning and history of the codex, these works address a range of social, political, cultural, ecological, and gender issues. Personal narratives and subversive themes are reimagined in the artists’ book format, expanding the ways books can be created, read, and understood as cultural artefacts. 

The various objects presented in BOOKMORPHS continue to abide by typical bibliographic references, even though an artist’s book presents a disruption to conventional literary structures. In an age of screen reading and doom-scrolling, this exhibition seeks to preserve a tactile connection with the book – as text, as layered object, and as interactive form.  

Participating artists: Eleni Angelou, Nikos Arvanitis, Rania Bellou, David Blackmore, Sarah Bodman, Ismini Bonatsou, BOOKEND – Matt Hale & Nick Cash, Maria Bourbou, Thodoros Brouskomatis, Jonathan Callan, Natassa Chelioti – Naga, Ioanna Delfino, Joe Devlin, Anna Dimitriou, Stephen Emmerson, SJ Fowler, Michael Hampton, Rowena Hughes, Inscription Journal (Gill Partington, Simon Morris, Adam Smyth), Antonia Iroidou, Eleni Kastrinogianni, Peggy Kliafa, Alexia Kokkinou, Georgia Kotretsos, Nikos Kryonidis, Vasiliki Lefkaditi, Eleni Maragaki, Kyriaki Mavrogeorgi, Despina Meimaroglou, Christina Mitrentse, Fiona Mouzakitis, Kiki Perivolari, Stamatis Schizakis, Ifigeneia Sdoukou, Christina Sgouromiti, Danai Simou, Dimitris Skourogiannis, Annetta Spanoudaki, Nectarios Stamatopoulos, Despina Stavrou, Aris Stoidis, Evangelos Tasios, Yannis Tzortzis, Leonie Yagdjoglou.  

Curated by Project 2 Athens (Fiona Mouzakitis & Despina Stavrou) and Christina Mitrentse.

Co-organised and hosted by the Hellenic Centre. 

Lead sponsor Captain Vassilis and Carmen Constantakopoulos Foundation. With the support of The A. G. Leventis Foundation. The catalogue is sponsored by The Panayotis & Effie Michelis Foundation. 

                          

SPECIAL PUBLIC EVENTS  

Tuesday 14 October, 18:00–21:00 

Exhibition Private View 

18:30 Speeches

19:00 Performance RAGE PEN: the uncut pages of a photobook are opened by hand to reveal its storyboard by David Blackmore & Michael Hampton

Friday 17 October, 09:30 

In Conversation: Christina Mitrentse and Fiona Mouzakitis with Stephen Emmerson 

Join us for a breakfast reception, followed by a conversation with artist Stephen Emmerson, moderated by curators Christina Mitrentse and Fiona Mouzakitis.

Saturday 18 October, 11:00 

Exhibition Tour with curators Fiona Mouzakiti and Christina Mitrentse  

Additional information

Project 2 Athens

Project 2 Athens is an independent artists’ initiative that organises exhibitions and art events aimed at promoting the work of contemporary artists in Greece and internationally. The initiative also seeks to curate interdisciplinary exhibitions that bring together visual art and other fields, thereby broadening both the aesthetic scope and conceptual understanding of contemporary artistic practice. The project is led by Fiona Mouzakitis, an artist and art historian, and Despina Stavrou, a photographer and owner of Manifactura Gallery.

Christina Mitrentse

Christina Mitrentse (b. 1977) is a Greek-born interdisciplinary visual artist who has lived and worked in London for over 20 years. She holds an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design and a PGCE in Art & Design. Mitrentse has taught at various London art colleges and runs a curatorial platform supporting both emerging and established multidisciplinary artists in collaboration with galleries and art centres across Europe.

Her practice centres on the book—as both form and metaphor—exploring its role in the transmission, destruction, and preservation of knowledge in a world shaped by crisis. Her ongoing participatory projects, Add To My Library (#ATML) and Bibliographic Data Flow (#BDF), create an evolving #Meta-library through the archiving of favourite book titles. Working across installation (bookscapes), handmade book sculptures, wall-based works, performance, drawing, and collage, she engages with issues in book arts, archiving, and cultural memory.

Mitrentse is represented by Citronne Galleries (Athens–Poros) and has exhibited widely, with 22 solo exhibitions and over 200 group shows in museums, galleries, and biennials worldwide. Notable venues include Tate Modern, the Royal Academy, ICA London, MOMus, EMST, the Jewish Museum of Greece, Hackney Museum, the Centre for Book Arts (New York), San Francisco Center for the Book, Rise Berlin, and Helsinki Contemporary. Her work has also featured in major art fairs such as PIAF, Brussels Art Fair, Art Rotterdam, and the Liverpool Biennial.

Her work is held in major public and private collections, including the Tate Archive, MOCA London, Penguin Collectors Society, Senate House Library, Women’s Art Library (Goldsmiths), Book Arts UWE, the Onassis Foundation, Alpha Bank, Benaki Museum, MOMus, the Jewish Museum of Greece, and the National Library of Baghdad.

Mitrentse has been featured in several major publications, including The Word is Art (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Unselfmarked: Reconceiving the Artist’s Book (Uniformbooks, 2015), and Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers (Penguin, 2022).