Winner of the 2009 Rootstein Hopkins Award, Zoe Williams used the bursary to test out new ideas and techniques, resulting in her most ambitious sculptural installation to date, The Flight of O. Mythically-charged materials and motifs are repeated again and again, as is the recurring symbol of ‘O’, which, depending on its context, transforms from a simple circle, to an eye, an orifice, an egg or a ring.

The accompanying book is a fairytale monograph, described in the introduction by Spike Island’s curator Marie-Anne McQuay as ‘a rich collage of pictorial references which includes historical documents that have provided inspiration alongside images of her own work and additional illustrations created especially for the publication’.

The publication also includes Pearlescence & Patience, a short story by artist and writer Laurence Figgis; and O, a poem by artist and writer Brin Frost.

Published alongside an exhibition at Spike Island, 1 May – 6 July 2010.