William Blake

The book presents Blake as a revolutionary poet and artist: ‘I know myself both Poet & Painter’, he wrote. In his paintings, Blake created visionary images that challenge conventional perceptions. In his poetry, he joined words and images in the form of the ‘illuminated book’, where verbal and visual depictions interact. A Romantic poet and religious visionary, Blake questioned Romantic assumptions and rewrote Biblical tradition in a radical mythology for his own time. He welcomed the eruption of the French Revolution and attacked Britain’s wars against revolutionary France, assaulting the social injustices of his day and critiquing the politics and psychology of power. The book introduces the full range of Blake’s poetry and illuminated books from the early Songs to the late epics, and focuses on the socially radical and challenging nature of Blake’s art - on his attempts to open what he called the ‘doors of perception’ past limiting visions and ideologies to the ‘infinite’