Veronica Ryan is best known for making sculpture that is evocative of objects and forms from the natural world. Since the mid-1970s, she has been experimenting with different scales, materials and techniques as part of her ongoing exploration of the interplay between conflicting opposites: revelation and concealment, container and contained, absence and presence.

From her early works using dental plaster at the Slade School of Fine Art to more recent sculptures, including clay casts of soursop skins glazed with volcanic ash, this timely book highlights Ryan’s unique contribution to the recent history of British sculpture.

Along a Spectrum is published on the occasion of Ryan’s major solo exhibition at Spike Island (19 May to 5 September 2021) made possible by the annual Freelands Award. Surveying the breadth and richness of her career to date, it contains essays by scholars and curators including Vanessa Boni, Dorothy Price and Natalie Rudd, as well as a conversation between Ryan and art historian Courtney J. Martin. It also features photographs of recent work, rarely seen images from the artist’s archive, and a chronology spanning 1956 to 2021.