Unlegendary Heroes

O’Reilly invited poet Mary O’Donnell to collaborate on a project. O’Reilly selected ten of Mary’s poems and responded in a series of ten visual images in watercolour which were then printed using silk screen at Graphic Studio Dublin. She used her skills as a printmaker and visual artist to create and manage the project. The final artwork is presented in a limited edition solander-boxed set of screen prints. O’Reilly commissioned Mary Plunkett of Belgrave Press to set the poems digitally using the font Caslan. She commissioned the hand-made boxes from award-winning book-binder Eilis Murphy of Folded Leaf. All the poems and illustrations are printed on 285 gsm Fabriano Rosapina Bianca printing paper. They were printed by Dermot Ryan at Graphic Studio Workshop in a limited edition of 12 sets. The 10 poems to which O’Reilly responds so vividly are taken from three different collections of O’Donnell’s poetry, dealing with aspects of female life and experience, and include one of her most essential and defining poem Unlegendary Heroes which became the title of the collaboration.

Unlegendary Heroes - a box set of fine art prints. A collaboration with Poet Mary O'Donnell. 2021

Unlegendary Heroes - title poem and illustration

Women and the Heron. Unlegendary Heroes.

20 Inches of Hair - Unlegendary Heroes Box Set

Wicklow - Unlegendary Heroes

On metaphor

Muse

Those prostitutes In Cuba

Waiting outside Bewleys

Feeding the Crone