Florilingua accompanies Shani Rhys James' new touring exhibition of paintings and an installation which distills the motifs of her recent work into a three dimensional audio experience. Here are Rhys James' characteristic wild wallpapers, menacing chandeliers and other domestic items in a specially created room, in which poems appear from amidst flowers. Seven poets respond to the situations in the paintings to create a compelling dialogue between paint and word on issues of domesticity, the relationship of women and home, rootlessness and what the places in which we live say about us. The responding poets are: Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke, Menna Elfyn, Jasmine Donahaye, Amy Wack, Pele Cox and Patrick Christopher Kavanagh.

A book of new paintings and works by Shani Rhys James, one of Britain's leading and most distinctive artists. Her latest work has developed a lighter palette to deal with new subjects of flowers and colourful patterned wallpaper backgrounds. These themes of domesticity are not anodyne however, but informed by 'The Yellow Wallpaper', Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 story about the plight of women in the home. Rhys James's paintings continue her exploration of the position of women in society, and in particular how women can be imprisoned by consumerism and the domestic environment. The 52 colour images in the book include photographs of a new development in Rhys James's work, automata based on the motifs of past paintings. The paintings are accompanied by a Foreword by the artist and critic William Packer, a perceptive interview of Rhys James by Francesca Rhydderch, in which the artist discusses her background and her interest in the position of women, and an essay by Edward Lucie-Smith which explores her paintings in an art history context. Produced to accompany a touring exhibition, this is a comprehensive introduction to the latest work of a fine painter.