The Self as a Stranger: Simon Lewty

Artist Simon Lewty is known for his large scale and intensely detailed works where the layering of text and image serve to create a dream-like reality. Narrative is rarely followed through to conclusion, yet we are compelled to immerse ourselves in Lewty’s rich representation of body and landscape. Visually reminiscent of Ancient documents and comparable to maps, Lewty’s text-based works explore forgotten worlds of light and darkness, offering a reflective sense of history and exploring the inevitability of the passing of time.

The writers whose words have been selected to accompany this comprehensive survey of Lewty’s work provide an in-depth study of the artist, shedding light on his key ideas and working method. The book opens with a foreword from Ian Hunt and features contributions from experts in a variety of disciplines, including Stuart Morgan, Paul Hills, Peter Larkin, Cathy Courtney and Susan Michie, as well as texts from Lewty himself, discussing memories from his childhood, through to more recent reflections on his life and art.

Lewty's work has been exhibited widely and is included in collections at the Arts Council of Great Britain, Victoria and Albert Museum, to Miami Beach, USA, where he is represented in the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry.

Published to coincide with a major exhibition at Art First, The Self as a Stranger is the first comprehensive collection of this highly original artist's work from over the past 50 years, and examines the enduring importance of Simon Lewty’s contribution to contemporary fine art.

Ian Hunt is a London based writer, curator and lecturer. He writes widely on contemporary art, and is currently a lecturer in fine art at University College for the Creative Arts, Canterbury.

Stuart Morgan (1948-2002) was Britain's foremost writer on contemporary art throughout the 1980s and mid-1990s. He contributed to Artscribe, US magazines Art Forum and Arts Magazine, and other major periodicals.

Paul Hills has lectured at Warwick University, directed the History of Art programme in Venice, and been a visiting professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies, and the Royal College of Art.

Peter Larkin is the author of several volumes and works as a librarian at Warwick University.

Cathy Courtney is a freelance writer and oral historian, Trustee of the archive of theatre designer Jocelyn Hebert and is a research professor at Wimbledon College of Art.

Susan Michie is a practicing artist based in Dorset.