When War Is Over
Daniel Alexander & Andrew Haslam
1.7 million Commonwealth War dead from the First and Second World Wars are commemorated individually and by name, on graves and memorials in 153 countries throughout the world. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains these – 2,500 cemeteries, 21,000 other burial grounds and 200 memorials to the missing.
This involves an international industry of administrators, quarrymen, stone cutters and gardeners. They respond to queries from relatives, update records, tend to the landscape and repair or replace worn and damaged headstones – each year some 22,000 are replaced. This ongoing maintenance has created a form of living memorial, which continually regenerates.
When War is Over investigates this through archival material and through photographs of the maintenance and construction process. Aerial satellite images of the cemeteries emphasise the monumental scale of death and the world wide reach of these sites of commemoration. Alexander avoids the familiar and the sentimental in order to investigate contemporary ideas of permanence, process and ongoing commemoration. The photographs and the design of the book emphasise the inherent tension in the Commission’s aim to commemorate the individual through the uniform treatment of the many.
First Published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by,
Dewi Lewis Publishing
8 Broomfield Road, Heaton Moor
Stockport SK4 4ND, England
Book Design: Daniel Alexander (Ottoby Press)
ISBN: 978-1-907893-83-4
1.7 million Commonwealth War dead from the First and Second World Wars are commemorated individually and by name, on graves and memorials in 153 countries throughout the world. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains these – 2,500 cemeteries, 21,000 other burial grounds and 200 memorials to the missing.
This involves an international industry of administrators, quarrymen, stone cutters and gardeners. They respond to queries from relatives, update records, tend to the landscape and repair or replace worn and damaged headstones – each year some 22,000 are replaced. This ongoing maintenance has created a form of living memorial, which continually regenerates.
When War is Over investigates this through archival material and through photographs of the maintenance and construction process. Aerial satellite images of the cemeteries emphasise the monumental scale of death and the world wide reach of these sites of commemoration. Alexander avoids the familiar and the sentimental in order to investigate contemporary ideas of permanence, process and ongoing commemoration. The photographs and the design of the book emphasise the inherent tension in the Commission’s aim to commemorate the individual through the uniform treatment of the many.
First Published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by,
Dewi Lewis Publishing
8 Broomfield Road, Heaton Moor
Stockport SK4 4ND, England
Book Design: Daniel Alexander (Ottoby Press)
ISBN: 978-1-907893-83-4
With Monochrome Eyes was published to coincide with the exhibition of the same name, curated by Tom Lovelace in the Borough Road Gallery in February 2020.
‘With Monochrome Eyes presents the work of sixteen lens-based artists, bringing a focus onto the use of greyscale within contemporary photographic practice. Each artist has contributed one black and white work and one colour work, connected through ideas, negotiations and depictions of the body. In the exhibition these works were displayed in two separated but connected spaces in a gallery bisected by a slatted wall. In the book the works are printed on different paperstocks.’ Tom Lovelace
Featured Artists: Eleonora Agostini, Elena Helfrecht, Mahtab Hussain, Ben Jeffery, Äsa Johannesson, Kalpesh Lathigra, Ryan L.Moule, Martin Parr, Giovanna Petrocchi, Silvia Rosi, Martin Seeds, Senta Simond, Deo Suveera, Esther Teichmann, Paloma Tendero, Simon Terrill.
First Published by Ottoby Press, London, 2020,
Art direction and book design: Daniel Alexander
Edition of 100
ISBN: 978-1-9163852-0-7