How Many Cuckoos for Spring?
A book with no words has to be legible to a five-year-old and a fifty-year-old at once, so every page carries the story in colour and gesture alone.
How Many Cuckoos for Spring?The brief
An abstract poem, to be turned into a silent picture book: no text, for children and adults together, on solidarity and hope. It was made as an educational tool, which meant each page had to open a conversation rather than close one.
The move
Every image is pencil and watercolour on paper — physical first, then scanned and finished digitally. Colour does the work the text would normally do: fire in the roots, green in the canopy, a horizon that changes temperature as the story turns.
The detail
It didn't stop at the book. It has since generated a festival and a programme of creative workshops — one of which I curated and led, watching people rebuild the pages out of cardboard and pipe cleaner.
- Pencil and watercolour originals on paper
- Scanned and finished digitally
- Printed sheets checked on press
- Workshop programme curated and led