2025 | Alexi Francis

Last year I was approached by a book publisher to design a cover for a new book set in the world of Alice in Wonderland. They wanted me to create an altered book that could be developed into a cover. Sadly, for me, the cover was rejected and they used another – very good – altered book artist, Isobelle Ouzman (if you don’t know her work, do check her out).

Anyway, I thought I’d share my Alice (or rather ‘Alyce’) altered book.

Alyce Altered Book

I can understand why it was rejected – too busy for a cover design. I was following a brief, but with limited guidance. Nevermind.

Now I’ve decided to sell it.

There are three illustrated pages including the top page. Below these there is a deepening, blue-inked hole that has been cut into the book (the actual book I’ve used is a secondhand Alice in Wonderland edition). I may decide to continue the illustration over the left hand page.

The hole represents a pond and it goes quite deep into the book. The final pages of the pond are unillustrated.

Below is my ‘cover’ minus the title and author’s name. Perhaps I’ll make a card out of it?

Cover for 'Alice' book

The altered book is available to buy in my website shop and on Etsy, or contact me if you’re interested.

I’ve been quiet on here for a while, occupied with projects that I can’t talk about just yet. But here is one I can – another altered book I’ve titled Returning to the Garden.

With this book I wanted to stray away slightly from my purely wildlife themed books and feature a woman from a previous century wandering the grounds of an old house. The older I get the more interested I become in the past – from prehistory to my own past – and that includes the time of Jane Austen, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

And my interest in the dress has returned – there’s a woman in a long dress among the pen and ink trees. I came across the work of the artist Victoria Brookland, who exhibits at the Masham Gallery. From the gallery I bought some postcards of her artworks and then a little book titled Wearer Unknown.

I love her imaginative and somewhat dark imagery and her bodiless dresses, from which all manner of strange and wonderful beings and things spring. She was interested in the Brontes, while I find myself curious about Jane Austen, especially after seeing Stephanie Smart’s paper dresses at Firle House. that I wrote about here.

The current BBC One drama, Miss Austen, based on the book by Gill Hornby, helps fuel my interest. The series is about letters and I’m intrigued by letters and diaries. I visited Jane Austen’s house in Chawton a few years ago and saw her writing table and notebooks.

Back to my book. It’s called Returning to the Garden as it features a woman wandering the garden of an old house with darkened windows, smoke rising from the chimney. There’s a bonfire lit and a fox creeping the edges. We do not know why the woman is out at night, but I am reminded of how Cassandra Austen, Jane Austen’s sister, was found wandering the garden after reading her dead sister’s letters in the Miss Austen drama series.

The altered book is now for sale in my website shop and Etsy shop.

Year: 2025

A Rejected Book Cover

Returning to the Garden Altered Book