Illustration and Heritage

Illustration and Heritage explores the re-materialisation of absent, lost, and invisible stories through illustrative practice and examines the potential role of contemporary illustration in cultural heritage. Heritage is a ’process’ that is active and takes place in the present. In the heritage industry, there are opposing discourses and positions, and illustrators are a critical voice within the field.

Grounding discussions in concepts fundamental to the illustrator, the book examines how the historical voice might be ’found’ or reconstructed. Rachel Emily Taylor uses her own work and other illustrators’ projects as case studies to explore how the making of creative work - through the exploration of archival material and experimental fieldwork - is an important investigative process and engagement strategy when working with heritage.

What are the similar functions of heritage and illustration? How can an illustrator ’give voice’ to a historical person? How can an illustrator disrupt an archive or museum? How can an illustrator represent a historical landscape or site?

This book is a contribution to the expanding field of illustration research that focusses on its position in heritage practice. Taylor examines the illustrator’s role within the field, while positioning it alongside the disciplines of museology, anthropology, archaeology, performance, and fine art.

Rachel Emily Taylor is the Course Leader for BA (Hons) Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, UK. In her practice, she makes illustrative works that involve mis- or under-represented people from history, with a particular interest in how the past can be reconstructed. She has previously worked with the Foundling Museum, the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Bowes Museum, the Horniman Museum, and the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.