So, why puzzle boxes?

Once upon a time - maybe ten years ago, I came across what is known in the art world as an ‘Open Call’. This means that someone is setting up an exhibition or an art project, and anyone can apply to be involved.

This one intrigued me. Somebody had got hold of an old cigarette machine, and wanted to use it to vend tiny works of art. They would send the artist pattern for the outside of the box and then you had to make something that would fit inside.

At the time I was working towards my illustration degree, so I was very story focussed. I decided to create a ghost story in a box. There would be various clues inside the box that would let the purchaser work out which ghost story it was - I based it on a legend local to the arts festival where the cigarette machine was going to be deployed.

It wasn’t the most amazingly successful project from their point of view, as it kept jamming because the boxes of art weren’t perfectly accurate. However it started me on a path of creating a new mystery box every year or so - though I quickly moved to decorating plain purchased boxes instead of trying to recreate cigarette packets!