Chris Ruston is a visual artist. She studied Fine Art BA (Hons) at Lancaster Polytechnic 1982, followed by a Post Graduate Diploma in Art Psychotherapy at Hertfordshire University 1989. She worked as an Art Psychotherapist in the NHS for many years, and now focuses on her studio practice.

​Chris firmly believes art is a conversation helping to facilitate questions and reflections about ourselves and our place in the world. She explores connections across time: how the past continues to resonate in the present. This often involves responding to places of historic interest, Museum collections, and the natural environment.

She lives by the Thames Estuary and finds endless inspiration from exploring the coastline and these liminal spaces. Daily walks along the shore have allowed her to form an intense relationship to the environment close by. These walks offer a healthy counterbalance to the frenetic speed of life and allow for a sharper focus on the smaller details which can be so easily overlooked; the changing light, the constant drift of the tides. 

The book form is where all these interests come together. Artist Books are the basis of her practice where she combines experimental mark making with observational drawings. Unique artist books are produced carefully selecting the structure to match the content of each work.

Chris has exhibited widely including at the Bodlian Library, Oxford, The San Francisco Centre for Book Arts,USA, The Natural History Museum, Colchester, and The Old Operating Theatre, London. She was a regular exhibitor at The TURN THE PAGE Artist Book Fair, where she was awarded the Artist prize in 2015. Her work is held in prestigious book collections most notably BooksoBooks, Oxford. 

Art is about making visible
what has touched us in the world"  
​
Merleau-Ponty

​Selected Exhibitions

Medicine & Superstition                              Group                     The Old Operating Museum, London                 2025
Without Borders.                                           Group                     HOFS  Hadleigh,  Essex                                        2025
Miscellanea                                                    Group                     Strangers Hall Museum Norwich                        2024
Light From The Dark                                     Group                     Museum of Norwich,The Bridewell                     2023
Repair & Repetition                                      Group                     Art Libraries Conference, Norwich                      2023
Book Arts Day                                                Group                     Society of Bookbinders London                          2023
Sensational Books                                        Group                      Bodlian Library Oxford                                         2023
Reclamation                                                   Group                      San Francisco Centre for Book Arts USA.          2021
Bugs                                                                 Group                     Groundwork Gallery, Kings Lynn                         2020
Beyond the Page                                           Group                      Gallery 70 Essex                                                     2019
The Curious World of Artist Books             Group                      The Loft Gallery Blickiling Hall, NT, Norfolk       2018
200 Fish                                                           Group                      The North Sea Observatory, Lincolnshire.         2018
Our eARTh, Artists &Climate Change         Group                      Kunthuis Gallery, Yorkshire.                                  2018

Selected Publications

Anthology
Ten Years of Turn the Page Artists Book Fair              Jules Allen Jo Howe                                 2024
Reclamation  Artists Book on the Environment,        SFCB                                                          2021
Extraction, Art on the Edge of the Abyss.                    Sam Pelts                                                  2020
BooksonBooks,                                                                Curated by Robert Bollick                       2020
Artists and Climate Change,                                           Chantel Bilodeau                                      2017
E-Squared Art Meets Science Vol.3                               Emily Dustman                                          2017
Essex Life                                                                                                                                                2016
British Artists' Book Makers                                            Caroline Mornment                                  2015
In Prasie oF Beautiful Books                                            Caroline Mornment                                  2013
Sheffield International Artist Book Prize                       Bank Street Arts                                        2013
Art School                                                                           Colin Saxton                                               1982
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