M HKA Ensembles

Artist Novel, 18.5 x 13.5 cm, 160 p., language : English, publisher : L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, ISBN : 9781910691052.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2029/923).

Literary synopsis

The novella is based on the author’s true life experiences as a porter in a county asylum in the late 1970’s.

"My job as ward porter was mostly cleaning toilets, but I got into a bit of trouble because I was telling the doctors how they should be treating the patients, giving advice [even though] I was a shit-shoveller really. I was only there for a short spell but I used to go back there and draw pretty regularly for two or three years after I worked there, before it was closed down. You know in those days it was quite strange; it used to be the 'Kent Asylum'. You could just drive in, park, walk through the main gate, walk up to the patients' canteen, get a cup of tea, sit down with everyone and draw. And no one would ask you a thing. There was no security or anything. That's how the world was, just a little while ago."

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

Since August 2015 thousands copies of Childish’s novella The Ward Porter have been distributed for free in major cities around the world without a clue to their origin or true author. From Chatham to Cyprus, from Berlin to Bangkok, from London to LA, Childish representatives have inserted rogue copies in the fiction section of unsuspecting bookshops, left them in cafes and phone boxes, on trains and on the tops of bins in the street. It is hoped that at least several copies will have found safe homes, though we realise that most will have been trashed without a thought.

Photographs of some placements can be seen on Instagram @TheWardPorter

Some ‘finders’ may be intrigued to learn of the The Ward Porters origin and others, who never happened across a copy may be sad to have missed out. To remedy this and help finance the folly of free books 75 copies of the ‘Free Edition’ have been specially bound in boards for L-13 with an original woodcut by the author laid in. Each copy signed and numbered by the author/artist.

Novel's website

Novel's website2