Works on the Arts and Crafts movement

The Arts and Crafts movement emerged in Great Britain around 1860 as a reaction to industrialisation and in support of craftsmanship over factory-made goods. It promoted traditional skills, handmade production, and a direct maker-to-object relationship. Followers valued ‘truth to materials,’ integrating art into daily life, and drew inspiration from nature. Influenced by medieval guilds, the movement linked design and labour to community, advocating for improved conditions and dignity for craftspeople in their everyday creative and social working environments.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a leading philosophical influence on the Arts and Crafts movement, shaping its intellectual foundation. Writing in the mid‑19th century, he criticised industrialisation for reducing workers to mechanical labour and producing objects lacking beauty and dignity. Central to his thinking was authenticity in the materials, construction, and purpose of an object, rejecting machine-made process and frivolous ornamentation. In his seminal text The seven lamps of architecture, Ruskin explores this notion of authenticity via ‘the lamp of truth’, sitting alongside the lamps of sacrifice, power, beauty, life, memory, and obedience. His writings aimed to remedy what he saw as the social and aesthetic problems caused by industrialisation, connecting design principles to moral virtues. Ruskin’s work provided the ethical and philosophical framework for the movement.

William Morris (1834-1896) was a prominent figure of the Arts and Crafts movement. He promoted handcrafted design and a balance of beauty and function in everyday objects. An artist, designer, and poet, Morris founded the Kelmscott Press in 1891 to revive traditional craftsmanship in book production and resist the mass-produced printing of the industrial age. 53 books were published over seven years. UNSW Library Special Collections holds two of these books, alongside a reproduction of its final publication, A note by William Morris on his aims in founding the Kelmscott Press. Morris translated Ruskin’s theoretical ideas into practice through his artistic process and commitment to handcrafted production.

Lewis Foreman Day (1845-1910) was a British industrial designer and educator. A notable contributor to the Arts and Crafts movement, Day was an advocate for elevating applied arts practices, such as wallpaper and stained glass, to the same level of value as fine arts. While he followed many of the core theoretical ethics of Ruskin and Morris, he did not completely reject industrial production processes, believing that beautiful and thoughtful design should be affordable to the public. His book Nature in Ornament explains how aspects of nature (such as flowers, vines, and creatures) are to be stylised and interpreted, rather than merely copied, to suit the qualities of specific materials and uses. Day’s book translates Ruskin’s ideals of remaining faithful to the intrinsic truth and beauty of nature into teachable design principles. It also formalised graphic elements evident in Morris’s work, explaining the geometry, mathematics, harmony, and symmetry present in the patterns.

The Arts and Crafts movement was both a movement of design reform and social reform, which became inextricably linked through the writings and teachings of its leading figures. The first industrial revolution of Great Britain (c.1760-1840) introduced machine manufacturing and the creation of large factories, which led to the rapid urbanisation of cities. The second industrial revolution marked a period of great scientific advancement and mass-production (c.1870-1914). Ruskin’s socialist ideals of a decentralised, human-centric society that values hand-made creativity were at odds with Great Britain’s industrial growth. Morris founded and was a key figure in socialist societies of the time.

• Looking at how the Arts and Crafts movement saw design and social reform as ideologically connected, consider how contemporary movements reject globalisation and mass consumption. Topics could include slow fashion, ethical purchasing, and circular economies (see UNSW Library Exhibition Materials Revolution).
• In his seminal text, The seven lamps of architecture, Ruskin’s chapter ‘the lamp of truth’ declares that '…it is not the material, but the absence of the human labour, which makes the thing worthless; and a piece of terra cotta, or of plaster of Paris, which has been wrought by the human hand, is worth all the stone in Carrara, cut by machinery' [pp. 55-56]. In a time where the boundaries of authenticity are increasingly blurred by emerging technologies, including AI, VR, and 3D printing, what value is placed on authenticity and the handmade in contemporary society?

The last book printed at the Kelmscott Press was A note by William Morris on his aims in founding the Kelmscott Press. Originally printed in 1898, this text is held by UNSW Library as a limited-edition 1969 reprint by The Irish University Press, bound in vellum. It outlines the founding aim of the Kelmscott Press to restore the craft and beauty of bookmaking and resist industrial processes. It also features a short history of the press by Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, including descriptions of each text published, outlining their design, fonts, binding, and other structural and aesthetic features. In Morris’s aims, he insists that all paper is hand-made, a Gothic Roman font is used, that the space between the letters or lines does not have 'undue whites', and that books contain harmonious decoration. He wanted to produce books that would have a '…definite claim to beauty, while at the same time they should be easy to read and should not dazzle the eye, or trouble the intellect of the reader by eccentricity of form in the letters'.

• Considering Morris’s aims in founding the Kelmscott Press concerning aesthetics and the labour involved to achieve the products. How do they compare with contemporary design standards and production concerns?
• The Defence of Guenevere and The golden legend of Master William Caxton done anew are two publications created by Kelmscott Press held in the collection of UNSW Library. Looking at the physical attributes of these books, how do they practically demonstrate the philosophical ideas of craftsmanship, truth to materials, and art as a part of everyday life expressed in Ruskin’s writing?
• What arguments can be made for and against publishing books in the manner championed by the Kelmscott Press and Ruskin’s theories, particularly in relation to feasibility, access, elitism, classism, and practicality? How might these considerations translate to contemporary digital and online publishing practices?
• Walter Crane (1845-1915), a contemporary of Morris, published the book Of the decorative illustration of books old and new in 1896. Crane focused on illustration within books, rather than the book as a whole work of art. To what extent does Crane demonstrate the aims of Kelmscott Press, and to what extent does his book reveal a differing aesthetic?

Day encourages people to see nature as the inspiration for design elements, rather than a source for imitation. He writes within Nature in Ornament that '[t]o do full justice to a plant it is not enough for the designer to make a drawing of it. One has to watch it through the year, perhaps through several years, in order to seize the moment when it reveals all the possibilities that are in it' [pg. 27]. He believed in studying nature closely to interpret it with authenticity.

• Using Day’s theories as a guide, assess the interpretation of natural forms in local architecture, furniture, or designed objects, by comparing their stylisation with the original plant or animal.
• In an era where hyperrealism can be achieved through digital tools such as AI and 3D modelling, to what extent are Day’s arguments for the transformation of natural forms, rather than imitation, relevant in the fields of fashion, design, art, and/or architecture?
• Day presents colonial-era language and attitudes, as well as the cultural appropriation of patterns, design, and artistic practices from various cultures throughout his book. Critically analyse his attitudes towards design aspects from non-British cultures.

Note: These books may utilise colonial-era language and offensive classification systems. They contain outdated terminology and cultural appropriation. These terms and references are present in these digitisations, but do not reflect the views of UNSW Library.