Uploaded September 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Recently acquired for the collection, ‘The Bastard Word Studies’ (2006-7) by Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is on display in our London exhibition ‘To the Stars: Illuminating the Art Collection in 50 Works’.
In this film, Fiona discusses her career-long interest in two themes: language and conflict. These converge in ‘The Bastard Word Studies’, a suite of drawings which asserts that the failure of language leads to conflict. Drawing aircraft which were operational around the world at the time, the artist contorts and shapes them into letters of the alphabet. She questions the legitimacy of this universal language of weapons, which might instead have been the language of peace and negotiation.
Film by Curator Julia Beaumont-Jones.
Recently acquired for the collection, ‘The Bastard Word Studies’ (2006-7) by Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is on display in our London exhibition ‘To the Stars: Illuminating the Art Collection in 50 Works’.
In this film, Fiona discusses her career-long interest in two themes: language and conflict. These converge in ‘The Bastard Word Studies’, a suite of drawings which asserts that the failure of language leads to conflict. Drawing aircraft which were operational around the world at the time, the artist contorts and shapes them into letters of the alphabet. She questions the legitimacy of this universal language of weapons, which might instead have been the language of peace and negotiation.
Film by Curator Julia Beaumont-Jones.
