Part of the edition / power in numbers exhibition from Bodhi Art Gallery, Brick Lane (7th May - 27th of May) this brilliant illustration from Peter James Field has been hand pulled by James Hurst (Cure Studio) and Fred Higginson (Print Club London) in a limited edition of 50.

My entry to the show is an expanded version of one of the pages in a personal book project I’ve recently been working on. On March 15th 2009 I fed a massive list of singers into the search facility of facebook. For each singer, I added together the number of fans contained in their various fansites (yes, it took hours and hours). I had no idea who would have the most or the least fans, it was just a kind of experiment. I wanted a way of looking at pop culture that was a) not purely based on money or record sales and b) something that exists itself in the same stream of short-lived pop culture (facebook will surely give way to the next online sensation very soon – if it hasn’t already). As it happened, Rihanna topped the list with 2,334,828 and Des O’Connor came last with 35. There were many surprises along the way – not least the fact that there are some fansites seemingly genuinely dedicated to Gary Glitter!

I decided not to include the names of the singers, as I felt this would be over-explaining. Part of the fun is guessing who’s who. I also like the idea that this piece, being so date specific, will look very different (and increasingly bemusing perhaps) as the years go by.

The print is 50cm by 50cm and has been hand numbered and embossed as a mark of authenticity. It is a limited edition of 50. The paper is Heritage White which is an archival paper and printed in Neptune Inks (which gives this an amazing shine). It will be posted via registered post in a safety tube.