Bestiary

The Bestiary is the result of a collaboration between the Print Council Aotearoa New Zealand and Aberystwyth Printmakers, a relationship fostered by A/P Director Jude Macklin.

Each printmaker was given a letter of the alphabet and asked to produce a print of an animal with the same initial.

Printmakers from Wales were each given a letter from the Welsh alphabet to illustrate. The prints were exchanged between the two countries so that each participating artist will own a collection of Bestiary prints.

What is a Bestiary?

A bestiary (from bestiarum vocabulum) is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson.

The legacy of the bestiary has lasted far beyond the Middle Ages with contemporary artists and printmakers continuing the tradition of the pairing of animal imagery and text, often calling their creations “bestiaries” after the medieval example. Today the term often refers to any collection of descriptions of animals, whether in words or images, but not necessarily with associated allegories or Christian connotations.