Thirty Six Views of the Sugarloaf / Nell Regan & Cathy Henderson

Join us for this reception to mark the opening of the exhibition and the publication of Nell Regan’s new poetry collection, Thirty-Six Views of the Sugarloaf which will be launched by poet Moya Cannon. All welcome.

See the exhibition supporting event here.

About

Inspired by 19th century artist Hokusai’s celebrated wood block prints of Mount Fuji, and early Japanese poetry, this collaboration between poet Nell Regan and late artist Cathy Henderson offers images of the iconic Wicklow mountain by Henderson, with letterpress prints of Regan’s words by Mary Plunkett, marking the publication of Regan’s new poetry collection, Thirty-Six Views of the Sugarloaf (Arlen House, 2026).

Regan and Henderson began this joint project over 10 years ago, aiming to create a set of artworks and poems drawing on the landscape of Co Wicklow’s Sugarloaf mountain. Collectively the works would draw on the aspects, moods, archaeology, art and dinnseanachas of the mountain as well as ‘all those lives lived about the peak’, including those of the author and late artist. However, the project was prematurely suspended following Henderson’s death in 2014.

Two years ago Nell Regan returned to Sugarloaf to complete the poems and now, with the help of the Henderson’s husband, David Gregg, a selection of Henderson's Views are exhibited for the first time and presented here with Regan’s completed collection of poems.. These include artist proofs of huge woodblock prints, study photographs, earlier Sugarloaf paintings as well as print blocks. They give a glimpse into her process and the interrupted ambition of the project, presented here with Regan’s completed collection of poems.

Nell Regan is a poet and non-fiction writer based in Dublin. She has published three collections of poetry; Preparing for Spring, Bound for Home (both Arlen House, 2007, 2011) and One Still Thing (Enitharmon Press, 2014). In 2017 A Gap in the Clouds: A New Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (with James Hadley) was published by Dedalus Press. Awards include an Arts Council Literature Bursary, a Fellowship at the International Writing Programme, Iowa and she has been a Fulbright Scholar at U.C Berkeley as well as a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellow. Her biography Helena Molony, A Radical Life, 1883–1967 (Arlen House, 2017) was an Irish Independent 2017 Book of the Year. Her translations of the Irish language poetry of Micheál Mac Liammóir have been published in Poetry Ireland Review and Cyphers. Nell Regan works freelance as an educator and literary programmer.

Cathy Henderson (1963–2014) was born in London and grew up in Northern Ireland before moving to Paris and then to Dublin to study at NCAD, where she graduated with a Masters of Fine Art in 1993. She was a member of Black Church Print Studio and exhibited extensively in the UK, Ireland, France and Canada, and previously held her solo exhibition, Below the Surface, featuring portraits of people working in areas such as cleaning, refuse-collection, repair and maintenance for Dublin City Council, at Mermaid Arts Centre in 2007.

In 2012 she was selected as co-designer, with Robert Ballagh, of the 1913 Lockout Tapestry to commemorate the centenary of the 1913 Dublin Lockout. Her work is in public and private collections such as National Bank of Canada, Queen's University Belfast, Bank of Ireland, the BBC and the Electricity Supply Board. The Royal Ulster Academy of Arts, Belfast commissioned a portrait of Henderson by Paul Mac Cormaic in October 2018.