An Exploration of the Comic Book

During an exploration of the comic book; its structures and narratives Sherwood created a number of abstract comics, photographs, and sculptures that boil the comic down to its foundations.

In the Gutter

In the comic book the “gutter” is the term given to the space between panels, the little strip of blank paper that acts as the structure upon which the comic book narrative hangs. Comic book creators use the gutter as a way of constructing narrative. The reader, in willing collaboration with the creators, takes the images either side of the gutter and transforms them into a single idea, projecting all of time, space, movement and more into the space of the gutter.

It was in exploring this idea that Sherwood created her series In the Gutter. Questioning how and if time might still be read if the content was removed, Sherwood cut away until all the reader is left with is space. By highlighting the gutter Sherwood created sculptural works that develop a new understanding and reading of the comic book page. Likened to the skeleton of the comic these works both memorialise and monumentalise the comic book and comic book time.

In the Gutter - Limited First Edition of 5, Copyright 2013 (Sold Out)

In the Gutter- Photograph on aluminium, direct to media print, available for sale in three sizes, please email for further details.

The End

In The End Sherwood works with the symbols that structure the comic books pages- the panels, gutters, speech balloons and iconography. The End forms a narrative despite the abstraction and minimal content. The work asks questions of the reader: What is needed for something to be read as a comic? How does comic book reading work? Are the signs of comic enough to create narrative?

Limited edition created in the Letterpress Workshop at Camberwell College of Art using hand made wood block comic book symbols. 

The End is housed at The Poetry Library and was included in an exhibition of their collection in the Southbank Centre. 

Sold Out, copyright 2013