WordArt Exhibition: '122' and the Chaos of Communication

From 1–3 February 2026, the Lansdown Gallery in Stroud hosted WordArt, a group exhibition celebrating the intersection of typography and visual language. As an artist living in the Stroud District, I was invited to contribute to a show that brought together diverse crafts—from letterpress printing to sculpture—exploring the power (and failure) of the written word.

My contribution to the show, a piece titled '122', takes a ubiquitous object of British suburbia—the UK wheelie bin—and transforms it into a vessel for inscrutable information. The artwork recreates the way people hand-paint house numbers or instructions on their bins (I am attracted to the rawness of this kind of typography –rendered quickly, inexpertly, functional– with little interest in the ‘beauty’ of lettering).

'122' is covered in words in multiple languages. For most viewers, the majority of the text remains illegible or incomprehensible. The words do all mean something, all a considered narration on a singular subject. I choose not to explain what this subject is - the point is that it remains frustratingly out-of-reach. In an age of digital noise, we are often overwhelmed by information we cannot process. '122' represents that tipping point where language stops being a tool for clarity and feels more like a barrier to insight. The wheelie bin is a mundane, functional object associated with waste. By applying hand-painted "signwriting" in various languages it reflects our daily experience: being surrounded by messages, alerts, and data that we see but don't truly "understand."

The WordArt exhibition was a vibrant celebration of literary artistry. Seeing '122' alongside traditional letterpress printing and typography pieces highlighted a shared fascination among Stroud artists: how do we make sense of the world through symbols?

Thanks to Alex and Adam at Good On Paper for conceiving and organising the show.