The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

This account of the adulterous lives of two Edwardian couples is a classic of unreliable narration. ...more info on wikipedia

About the artist: Iain Perry (printgarage)from the UK

Print Garage is the dark and dusty underground lair of Iain Perry: self-styled, swashbuckling squeegee warrior. He creates vibrant screen prints investigating the minutiae of his surroundings drawing inspiration from old technology, tools and toys, cinema, record sleeves and the world of science. Originally trained in painting he has since discovered that screen printing is a million, billion, trillion (all the ‘illions’)times more fun saying: “I have found there can be a real joy in repetition”. He is also co-director of Unit Twelve Gallery, a contemporary craft gallery and workshop space based in a rural part of the midlands in the UK.

Why this work

“I wanted to convey the unpredictability and duplicity contained in the novel ‘The Good Soldier’. The narrator appears as a naïve, simple and unquestioning man whilst relating the tale of Edward Ashburnham. The ‘Good Soldier’ is a playful and mischievous novel, layered, unpredictable and not quite what it seems. On the surface it’s told in a meandering way, jumping back and forth through time, by a seemingly naïve narrator. It toys with our sympathies and misdirects us throughout its 200 pages. My design echoes the layers within the novel and that of the main character, Edward Ashburnham, who on the surface is indeed a brave and good soldier, being awarded a Distinguished Service Order medal, contrasting with the threadbare morality of his philandering and general treatment of his wife. I also wanted to convey the idea of the text as a woven material and the feeling of being ‘spun a yarn’ by the narrator.”