The Origin of Springs by Lillian Wilkie, is an artist book published by Tenderbooks in 2017. The book features a unique handmade cover with postcard inserts. Lillian Wilkie is a London based artist, publisher, and teacher. She is one of the founders of Chateau International, an independent press which works with artists and spaces to produce books, events, and performances. Tenderbooks is an artist space for independent publishers in London.
“The Origin of Springs uses the embodied labour of beauty salon workers as a foundation on which to excavate speculative industrial and geological histories. It traces a path from the calloused hand of the miner to the manicured hand of the service worker, via the performative and mythological spaces of the salon, the pub, the mine shaft and the nuclear power station. The book combines fiction, anecdote, essay and memoir with original and found imagery, film stills and visual gestures. Exploring diverse themes of labour, class, touch, intimacy and self-care, it culminates in a chorus of voices commemorating a mythical workforce.” —Tenderbooks, 2017