The relationship between art and poetry is a long-standing one which has been used and explored in many different ways historically.

The main idea behind An Eyeful of Words is to use visual art to provide a new way into poems, particularly for those people who would not normally read poetry.

However, it is also part of a wider tradition of  ‘ekphrasis’, a term often used when talking about poems based on or inspired by works in other art forms such as painting, or photography. (The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines this as “a literary description of, or commentary on, a visual work of art”.)

This exhibition explores the relationship between art and poetry as a two-way, and even circular, process.

Some of the photos and paintings were created in response to individual poems, others to a collection of poems. In some cases, the resulting artwork then inspired new poetry. In other cases, the photos and paintings acted as the starting point and inspiration for the corresponding poems.

This process is not one of simple translation from one medium to another but one of new interpretation or extension of the original poem/artwork, in a different medium.