inscription journal

Inscription: the Journal of Material Text - Theory, Practice, History is edited by Professor Simon Morris (Leeds Beckett University), Dr Gill Partington (Fellow in Book History at the Institute of English Studies, University of London) and Professor Adam Smyth (English Literature and the History of the Book at Balliol College, Oxford University). The Inscription journal combines imaginative thinking and critical rigour to take the study of material texts in new directions. Its focus is not just on the meanings and uses of the codex book, but also the nature of writing surfaces (papery or otherwise), and the processes of mark-marking in the widest possible sense: from hand-press printing to vapour trails in the sky; from engraved stones to digital text. The journal’s theoretically aware, trans-historical, and cross-disciplinary remit breaks with the conventions of academic ghettoization, creating connections between areas that have much to say to one another – bibliography, media theory, conservation, the history of the book, museum studies, and artist’s book studies, for instance – enabling wide-ranging conversation and unexpected juxtapositions. It is also an academic journal that looks like no other. The editors work with Fraser Muggeridge Studio to experiment with the format of each issue, so that Inscription is both a journal of cutting-edge research and a playful and innovative multimedia artefact. Inscription journal is published by Information as Material, York in partnership with Leeds Beckett University.