I made a few ‘Library Figure Studies’ based on ideas I had about Tatlins’ Tower and the need for library steps and as a reference to the idea of Library edifices that I had in mind for the 1998 exhibition at the Redfern Gallery.

Later on, I felt that I had not really done justice to these studies in the paintings; which took a different trajectory, particularly in relation to the type of space and the element of realism that they employed.

Sometime later I used the original studies as a basis for 78 new studies exploring the subject from a more abstract point of view, rather in the manner of a theme and variations; creating a very different use of space with a view of another show.

They also feature in this video

The studies are in the collection of the American artist Al Shepp who made an astute comment on them at the time, saying that “they were really me”. I think he was right but I became waylaid by my interest, possibly obsession, with the play on words that took my work in a different direction and left these studies in a kind of isolation that I have only recently realised.