Penniless Prints: Our Project Exhibition with Jess Heywood

To read Nashe is to be confronted by a restless series of images — often grotesque and uncanny, but always vivid, despite Nashe’s refusal to linger on them. It was natural, then, that our project should include collaboration with a visual artist to create images in response to Nashe’s. This <a href="https://research.ncl.ac.uk/thethomasnasheproject/pennilessproject/artwork/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">digital gallery</a> contains drawings by Jessica Heywood, one of our principal collaborators on the project. It was created after a physical pop-up exhibition held at the University of Sheffield’s Diamond Building, 7–17 February 2023. We opened with a small but well-attended launch party, featuring other collaborators from the project, colleagues from the Faculties of Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences, and bowls of delicious rice crackers. Jessica has worked with us since the beginning of the project to produce an artistic response to Pierce Penilesse (1592), in particular the speaker’s survey of vices besetting early modern London. The result is a series of pen-and-ink drawings presented both as a collection of prints and as a zine. (Jessica also made some badges especially for the exhibition — everyone loves a good badge.) If you’ve been reading these blogs, you’re already familiar with Jessica’s work: each essay has been illustrated by one of the drawings. Jessica has also engaged with other parts of the project, travelling with us to Newcastle to watch Cap-a-Pie’s devised theatre piece, ‘Propa Penniless’, and to take part in the after-show discussion. <a href="https://medium.com/@a.cornish/penniless-prints-our-project-exhibition-with-jess-heywood-f5ff01c63f7e">Read More</a>