One Love shines light on Limonious

Al Newman’s unconventional route into publishing has seen him work on books for magazines and clothing companies—including a 1,000-page book on camouflage—and has afforded him an idiosyncratic view on “the book” and what can be achieved with it. In Fine Style, the fourth book issued by his publishing company, One Love Books, which he founded in 2012, focuses on the late Jamaican artist and illustrator Wilfred Limonious, who died in 1999.

Newman came across Limonious, who illustrated “over 250 album covers and hundreds of 7-inch [vinyl] singles” as well as newspaper cartoons, through his love of music and Jamaican culture. Lamenting the lack of awareness about Limonious outside “certain circles” —“people who buy reggae and dancehall LPs from the ‘80s”— Newman wanted to “shine a light” on the artist and his work. “In other genres like jazz and blues and rock, there’s been focus on album cover artwork and who did it”, Newman says. “But in reggae and dancehall music, there hasn’t been that. We saw it as important to promote this kind of work.”

Priced at £30, the coffee-table tome is a striking catalogue of Limonious’ artful and vibrant body of work, which was the “perfect visual counterpart to Jamaica’s emerging dancehall scene” during the 1980s. Compiled by Canadian writer Chris Bateman with help from Newman, the pair intend to “expose Limonious’ work to the world and celebrate it”.

“I always found it strange…people who know his work love it, but if you go to a gallery, you’re never going to see his work on display, and in the art world people have never heard of him. Me and Chris though it was important to honour his work and his legacy.”

The striking visual element of Limonious’ work inspired Newman to partner with galleries and museums for exhibitions based around the book, and as a juggler of many balls—he describes himself as a DJ, publisher, graphic designer and curator—Newman was well placed to organise an exhibition in order to reach new audiences. He said: “Curation, design, research, book production, all these things go hand in hand. If you put a book together, it’s quite easy to translate that into an exhibition.”

Supported by Arts Council England, the exhibition toured across the country, displaying the art and giving talks in venues including the V&A and various galleries in south London. The pair also collaborated with Goldsmiths, University of London, for an event of music and talks in memory of Limonious. While Newman describes the tour as “really good and really well received”, his main focus now is the book, which is published on Tuesday 16th August and available through bookshops and onelovebooks.com.

“For me, the book is the main thing. The exhibition has been a great experience and I’m really proud of the show but it’s like a condensed version of the book and I’m excited to now present the book to the world. I’m really happy with it; Limonious’ work was so vibrant, so colourful, so funny. It was great bringing it together.”