"Looking at the grand marble staircase in the Mitchell Library, I imagined words across the risers of each step. But what to write? After some days I realised that the word square Hearth could be expanded horizontally, making multiple sets of the same design. By locking the word square to the right hand side, the symmetry of the letters H E A R T H could be retained, creating the diagonal striping which gives the work additional graphic power.

I would like the viewer to treat Hearth like a visual mantra, as a fascinating knot, like a weaving which slowly reveals its patterns to the eye and to the voice."

Richard Tipping,  December 2013