In 2008, the House of Fairy Tales published a stunning portfolio featuring twenty-two signed prints that sought to reimagine the diverse narratives of these familiar childhood stories. It included work by some of the most acclaimed artists working in Britain at the time, including Peter Blake, Harland Miller and Paula Rego.

An arts-based education project which uses the narrative scope of fairy tales to provide creative, innovative and transformative learning experiences for children of all ages and their families, the House of Fairy Tales has been responsible for some of the most innovative and thought-provoking outreach programmes in contemporary art. Hard to find in its complete state, The House of Fairy Tales portfolio represents the pinnacle of what can be achieved in the printmaking studio. Sourcing individual images is incredibly difficult.

Mat Collishaw has been producing romantic, grand images for more than thirty years. The works have a nostalgic gleam and beguiling baroque quality, which upon closer inspection reveals the decayed and depraved underbelly of contemporary society. Drugs, homelessness, political sadism and sexual aberration are recurring themes throughout his work. Epic traditional mosaics with twisted imagery are shown alongside cinematic projects, revealing subject matter that questions mortality and the strange protective embrace of the State. His work is mesmerising and cynical, heroic and cruel.

For The House of Fairy Tales portfolio, Collishaw has appropriately reproduced an early image from his Fairies series, choosing a rare and exquisite photographic technique that uses platinum. The image reveals fairies holding flowers mourning the death of ‘Cock Robin’. On closer inspection, the fairies are ordinary children depicted in a bewildering change of scale.