Sans Gill

These works are a response to shifting attitudes towards the art of Eric Gill following the uncovering of his abuse of 2 of his daughters. Some institutions continue to show his work without comment, some have removed it altogether. But his fonts - such as Gill Sans - remain widely used. Sans Gill light and Sans Gill heavy foreground the unseen and deeply hidden, the negative spaces around his art.

Iona’s grandfather, Donald Potter, was Gill’s apprentice and many of Gill’s wood carvings were done by him. While studying at Central Saint Martins, Iona discovered Gill had studied and taught there more than a century before. This felt like a prompt to examine a connection she had been avoiding looking closely at. She finished this project with as many questions as she started with, including: what do we do with art that carries the name of a problematic artist but was done by another’s hand?