General Motors – Leigh Davis

General Motors was part of Leigh Davis’ continuing exploration of poetry, image and object as parts of the same work.

The original edition, made in only three copies, was conceived as less a conventional book than as a sculptural reading object: housed in a handcrafted copper box that projects from the wall as a singular bookshelf, containing a handmade box which is removed and opened flat. Inside, verses are printed across layers of fabric, translucent sheets and paper, lifted away one by one rather than turned like pages – more like drawing back veils than reading through a book.

The online work, originally conceived by Stephen Canning and Steve Rood in 2000, reinterpreted the layered, tactile qualities of the original as a simple interactive digital work developed in Shockwave/Flash.

With Flash now obsolete, in 2026 I revisited and reconstructed this as a browser-based work. Image, object, movement and navigation now play a richer part of the reading experience. The new experience preserves more of the sense of revealing, uncovering and moving through the work.