Guernica Remakings, Front Cover. Book design Ness Wood. Illustration Ryan Wooding.
Nicola Ashmore's first book is entitled Guernica Remakings (2017), edited by Liz Farrelly. This book, published alongside the exhibition, Guernica Remakings, explores the ongoing power of Picasso's Guernica through a series of contemporary reworkings that continue to locate the iconic image within political protest.
Zoleka, Veronica and Nombulelo holding their creation the Keiskamma Guernica (2017) – stood infront of the Keiskamma Guernica (2010), Keiskamma Art Project, Hamburg, South Africa, January, 2017. Photographer Joe Hague.
The featured artworks demonstrate the longevity and versatility of the original as it morphed from Picasso's canvas, painted in 1937, to a tapestry in 1955, a textile artwork in 2010, a theatrical production in 2011 and a protest banner in 2012. Guernica's humanitarian message is still relevant, it calls for solidarity and compassion across borders. Traversing geographical boundaries with each remaking it connects Spain and France to the USA, UK, South Africa, Canada and India. The voices involved in creating the artworks are heard alongside the author Nicola Ashmore.
Spanish town of Guernica, after bombing 26 April 1937. Courtesy of World History Archive / Alamy
The book was published in 2017 to mark the eightieth anniversary of the bombing of the Basque town of Gernika in Spain. Pablo Picasso created his iconic, anti-Fascist painting, Guernica (1937), in protest against that attack and others targeted at civilian populations. The book was only made possible by the generous support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the University of Brighton.
Guernica Remakings reviewed
Nicola Ashmore's excellent and beautifully-produced book Guernica Remakings is a record of some of the 'afterlives' of Picasso's Guernica, a painting that can retrospectively seem to have been made specifically to haunt the world in continuous afterlife.
See the complete Guernica Remakings book review "Flying the flag for Picasso's Guernica" by Dr Benjamin Hannavy Cousen, artist and author of the article Memory, Power and Place: Where is Guernica, here: Centre for Design History.
Guernica Remakings is available to purchase online.