Artifice

Artifice is an exploration of the art of making. Its poems celebrate the artistry of craftsmanship: how works relate to beauty, and how they might inspire or ensnare. They consider issues of artificiality and authenticity, ‘the man-made’ and ‘the natural’. They warn of artfulness, in the sense of cunning or deception. And they wonder at the mystery of art and language, that which resolutely remains unknown or ineffable.

For Artifice is as much riddle as revelation, stirring delight and discomfort as it delves into the nature of aesthetics and the creative process. How are works made and how do they make us, in turn? What worlds can be built from words? This book dwells in possibility, presenting an ambiguous space for contemplation, connection and, ideally, hope – for ‘to marvel is the beginning of knowledge’ (E. H. Gombrich).

Lavinia Singer is the author of the pamphlet Ornaments: A Handbook (If a Leaf Falls/Glyph Press, 2020) and co-editor of Try To Be Better (Prototype, 2019), a creative-critical engagement with the work of W. S. Graham. Her poetry has been awarded the Newdigate Prize, the SMV Heritage Poetry Competition, the Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Prize; shortlisted for the inaugural White Review Poetry Prize, the Margaret Hewson Award for New Writing and the Jane Martin Poetry Prize; and longlisted for the National Poetry Competition. She works as an editor of poetry at Faber. Artifice is her first full collection of poetry.

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