The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith

This classic of Victorian suburbia will always be renowned for the character of Mr Pooter. ...more info on wikipedia

About the artist: Stephanie Blackfrom the UK

Stephanie was raised by ptarmigans on a mountainside in Scotland, and went on to study illustration at Glasgow School of Art. And then went to another one after that, for good measure. Her work combines drawings, photocopies and matter extracted from the guts of numerous shabby sketchbooks and junk shops and has something of an air of dilapidation about it. It exists in the gaps between words and pictures, somewhere between sense and incomprehension. Rumours that she is heir to a fortune built on the invention and subsequent popularity of the Victorian moustache cup have proved unfounded.

Why this work

“After embarking upon an ill-fated excursion into metaphorical territory, the solution to the problem was found in the book’s main character and his endeavours to record the minutiae of life at Brickfield Terrace. The indefatigable Mr. Pooter was better served by a more literal response to match his excruciating banter and ill-advised attempts at humour. My response was to award the self-important fellow a crown of blancmange to be worn as he and his long-suffering wife serve endless, grey, mutton-based meals to their small circle of friends and acquaintances as they ham-fistedly negotiate the complexities of polite company. Therefore the result isn’t so much a poster announcing the book as a print to be lived with. It is less immediate and more humdrum, comprising layers of detail to be unravelled through intimacy. This approach was intended to reflect the notion of a diary of trivial events amplified beyond their importance, and the experience of spending time reading it in the form of the book selected from the list.”