The Art of Writing

Vere Foster’s ‘Bold Writing’ ‘Civil Service’ copybook series (1867 – 1957)

Found in Mountjoy Prison in the late 1990’s, were once used to teach prisoners how to write in medium round hand.

Writing a letter is one way that a prisoner can link to the outside world and reconnect with his or her (pre-prison) identity. ‘Incarceration often forces individuals to shed or suppress certain aspects on one’s personality in order to fit into the physically and emotionally aggressive environment of prison’. 1

This work aims to encourage criticatl reflection in the context of person, place and identity through one prisoner’s narrative on letter writing.

Letters from prison have formed a part of our shared National history, and how we have come to know and remember it.

1Winnicott, D.W. (1963). The maturational processes and the facilitationg environment: Studies in the theories of emotional development. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.

The Art of Writing | 2016 | 1’