Making New Worlds

- The first book to focus on the LYC Museum Art Gallery, rather than Li Yuan-chia's practice as a whole

- A fresh account of 20th century British art centering diverse artists and cultural figures including Li, as well as Audrey Barker, Thetis Blacker, Lygia Clark, Delia Derbyshire, Andy Goldsworthy, Madelon Hookyaas and Elsa Stansfield, dom sylvester housédard, Claire Langdown, Liliane Lijn, David Medalla, David Nash, Winifred Nicholson, Mira Schendel, Takis and Shelagh Wakely

- A standalone history of the LYC that accompanies an exhibition of the same name at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge (11 November 2023 - 18 February 2024)

- This book traces the impact of Li's practice at the LYC, and beyond, on the contemporary moment and in relation to contemporary artistic and curatorial work

- Richy illustrated with reproductions of works in the exhibition and beyond, as well as rarely seen archival material

- A new approach to an artist who is quickly becoming recognized as a major figure and whose work is in the collections of major international collections including Tate and M+, Hong Kong

Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia & Friends is the first book to document the extraordinary activity at the LYC Museum & Art Gallery in Banks, Cumbria between 1972 and 1983. The LYC was the singleminded effort of the artist Li Yuan-chia, who moved to the rural North of England by way of London, Bologna, Taipei and Guangxi, China. At the LYC, Li organized exhibitions, published books, exhibited archelogical artifacts, arranged workshops and welcomed an array of visitors from local and international artists and art workers to nearby residents and travelers, many of whom became friends. In this book, which accompanies an exhibition of the same name at Kettle's Yard, the curators Hammad Nasar, Amy Tobin and Sarah Victoria Turner, establish Li's work at the LYC as a form of worldmaking, connecting his cosmic conceptual art practice, to his interest in participation and friendship as well as his engagement with nature and the landscape. Nasar, Tobin and Turner's account is accompanied by nine short texts - by Elizabeth Fisher, Ysanne Holt, Annie Jael Kwan, Lesley Ma, Gustavo Grandal Montero, Luke Roberts, Nick Sawyer & Harriet Aspin, Nicola Simpson and Diana Yeh - that trace the diverse threads and ramifications of Li's practice historically and in the present. Richly illustrated, Making New Worlds offers a provocative new way of thinking the history of British art in the 20th century.