A bit about me!
Hi, I'm Felicity Bristow – a Scottish Borders-based artist and designer working across fine art, bookbinding, and site-specific installation. Originally trained in Architecture, I earned a BArch and Diploma of Architecture from Edinburgh College of Art, practising as an architect in Edinburgh until 2008. I later returned to study on the ECA Part-time BA in Art & Design, gaining a Certificate of Higher Education and an MA in Contemporary Art Practice.
Since 2012, I have worked independently and collaboratively from my studio in Melrose. My practice bridges the visual and tactile, drawing on fine art, traditional craft, and research-led design.
You can find my handmade books in my bookery, or if you're looking for a bespoke piece for a special occasion, I’d love to create something just for you. Each quarter, I release a limited edition of seasonally inspired hand-bound books – join my mailing list to be the first to know!
I studied at Edinburgh College of Art for a BArch and Diploma of Architecture and practised as an Architect in Edinburgh until 2008. Since then, I completed a CofHE in Art & Design and an MA in Contemporary Art Practice. I established my studio in 2010 and have worked as a freelance artist, designer, and trainee fine bookbinder since 2012 from my studio in the Scottish Borders.
I am a professional member of Visual Arts Scotland, The Society of Scottish Artists, Scottish Contemporary Art Network, and I was a founding member of the artist book collective bound : unbound. More recently I have set up the South East Scotland Printmakers & Book Arts Collective.
I established Felicity Bristow Studio in 2012 after falling in love with hand binding books and printmaking while on the part-time BA in Art & Design course at Edinburgh College of Art.
Alongside my studio practice I also enjoy working part-time managing local community and creative organisations using my practical and creative skills to support them with administration, fundraising and strategic project development and delivery.
I am registered self-employed with a registered freelance artist PVG so can support long or short-term roles and contracts with groups and individuals.
I am based at my studio in 1 The Wynd, Melrose, Scottish Borders.
(2024 – currently undertaking)
City & Guilds Certificate in D&C | Bookbinding | Level 1
(2015 – 2016)
MA Contemporary Art Practice (Merit), ECA, Edinburgh University
(2016)
C of HE in Art & Design, ECA, Edinburgh University
(2007 – 2015)
BA in Art & Design (Part-time) 200 credits, ECA, Edinburgh University
(1998 – 2001)
Dip Arch, & Part 3 Examination in Professional Practice, ECA, Edinburgh University
(1993 – 1998)
BArch (Hons) 2:1 ECA, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh
At the heart of my work is an inquiry into the book, not only as a vessel for language and narrative but also as a sculptural and spatial form. My artist books often move beyond conventional formats, transforming into abstract objects that evoke architectural rhythm, material memory, and the layered sense of place.
Themes of transformation, abstraction, and environmental storytelling recur throughout my projects. I often focus on the cover or container of a book as a visual archive, drawing from natural, architectural, and site-specific materials.
My work is process-based and experimental. I integrate traditional disciplines like fine bookbinding and printmaking with photography, large-scale paper chromatography, and landscape-responsive media. This approach allows for poetic and sensory interpretations of place.
As Duncan Macmillan wrote in The Scotsman (2016), my chromatography pieces include:
“…layers of vivid colour that seem to have been drawn up into the paper by some kind of osmosis.”
I will complete the first stage of fine bookbinding training, supported by The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST), in June 2025.
My practice includes durational installation and performance-based work developed through collaboration with movement practitioners, I also make short book art films. The focus for this aspect of my practice is on geological, deep-time and ephemeral narratives and the ideas and outcomes continue to evolve through new interdisciplinary projects.
In addition to studio work, I collaborate with individuals, creative businesses, and organisations. I offer creative consultancy and project development services that combine artistic insight with a strategic approach.
I am self-employed, PVG-registered, and open to freelance opportunities, whether short-term commissions, community engagement projects, or long-term partnerships.
Interested in collaborating or commissioning work?
Please get in touch to discuss your project, idea, or organisation’s needs.
“...with layers of vivid colour that seem to have been drawn up into the paper by some kind of osmosis.”
Duncan Macmillan, The Scotsman (2016).
My process based contemporary practice explores the craft of bookbinding and artist books, printmaking, photography and real-time scientific methods of large-scale paper chromatography set up as site specific installations to form unique abstract works revealing ephemeral and ‘alternative truths’ about site and the landscape.
The intimate scale of the book as a unique piece of work can also be scaled up as multiples to form a visual library or collection.
In my studio practice I explore idea of the ‘book’ as a functional object and container, but also in abstract through my artist books and sculptural installations. In my experimental work I have been especially drawn to developing the themes of ‘transformation’ and ‘abstraction’ of the book and its cover as an object and container for a visual narrative. My research is related to buildings, their landscape and setting and the built environment, the work is always site specific.
Looking for an ideal gift for that creative someone who likes to paint or keep a journal?
