Ebb & Flow: Bookworks by Yoko Terauchi from the Research Library
Study Gallery, Henry Moore Institute
15 May – 30 August 2026
Free entry
The Sculpture Research Library at Henry Moore Institute holds over 30,000 books, catalogues, journals and audio-visual materials dedicated to sculpture. Among them, artists’ books – conceived as artworks in their own right – form a distinctive and growing part of the collection, often developed through close collaboration between artists and curators.
This display in the Study Gallery focuses on bookworks by Japanese artist Yoko Terauchi (b.1954). Trained in sculpture at St Martin’s School of Art, London, and a Henry Moore Fellow at Camberwell in 1983–84, during which she undertook a residency in Leeds, Terauchi works primarily with paper to explore interior and exterior as a continuous plane. Across installations and bookworks, Terauchi questions fixed ways of seeing and categorising.
Five rare works from the collection are presented alongside photographs of related installations (1983–2024). In these works, the book becomes an expanded sculptural form, collapsing distinctions between object, image and page.
Highlights include Terra 1984, in which cut drawings are made by slicing through layered sheets of paper and transferring pigment to create corresponding ‘shadow’ images, and Ebb & Flow 1988, a concertina work torn to reveal the inner structure of the paper and painted red on one side and blue on the other. With no fixed beginning or end, it challenges binary distinctions such as inside and outside, or more and less. As Terauchi reflects, such oppositions “might look different depending on where you are and who you are”.
Other works on display include Coil / Join 1994, Cuckoo 1992 and One 2012. These works were published with Coracle Press, the influential Camberwell-based imprint founded by Simon Cutts, which worked closely with artists associated with the New British Sculpture.
In Henry Moore Institute’s Sculpture Research Library, commercially produced artists’ books sit alongside biographies of sculptors, exhibition catalogues and theory and criticism of sculpture. Encountering an artist’s book within this context is a uniquely rewarding experience, allowing direct engagement with a work of art beyond the gallery. Visitors are welcome to browse the library’s collections in the reading rooms free of charge and can request items from special collections in advance.
Main image: Yoko Terauchi, Ebb & Flow 1988. London: Coracle Press, courtesy the artist. Photo: Minyung Im.
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Notes to editors
About the artist
Yoko Terauchi was born in 1954 in Tokyo, Japan. She studied at the Department of Art and Design at Women’s Art University in Japan, completing her degree in 1977 and Graduate School in 1978. Terauchi then moved to London where she studied the Advanced Course in Sculpture course at Saint Martin’s School of Art between 1979 and 1981.
Terauchi has since continued to exhibit regularly in the UK and internationally, including in Japan where she returned to live. Her practice consists predominantly of sculptural installations and book works. She was a professor at Aichi University of the Arts, Tokyo.
In 1984 Yoko Terauchi spent a week in Leeds, UK, making a new piece of sculpture in Leeds Art Gallery. Terauchi made the new work publicly in the gallery space, interacting with visitors and school groups throughout the week who were able to ask questions about her working process. During this time she produced the work Hot Line 19, part of a series of works she made using industrial English telephone cables, and Cut Drawing 1, the first of a series of works on paper.
About the Sculpture Research Library
The Sculpture Research Library is part of Henry Moore Institute in Leeds and offers unparalleled access to material on sculpture. We welcome readers to explore this unique reference resource and study sculpture in our beautiful reading rooms.
The library contains over 30,000 books, exhibition catalogues and journals with a particularly strong focus on British sculpture.
The library has a unique growing collection of artists’ books, all of which explore sculptural themes in some way. Items in the collection include hand-made limited editions, conceptual works, bookworks by land artists and sculptural items exploring the format of the book. Our collection of artists’ books continues to grow, with new items by contemporary artists added every year.
Find the library on the first floor of Henry Moore Institute, it is free to use and all visitors are welcome. Open Tuesday to Friday, 10:00–17:00, and Saturday 13:00–17:00.
About Henry Moore Institute
Henry Moore Institute welcomes everyone to visit their galleries, research library and archive of sculptors’ papers to experience, enjoy and research sculpture from around the world. The newly refurbished Institute can be found in the centre of Leeds, the city where Henry Moore (1898–1986) began his training as a sculptor. Their changing programme of historical, modern and contemporary exhibitions and events encourage thinking about what sculpture is, how it is made and the artists who make it.
As part of the Henry Moore Foundation, they are a hub for sculpture, connecting a global network of artists and scholars, continuing research into the art form and ensuring that sculpture is accessible and celebrated by a wide audience.
The long-established partnership of Leeds City Council and the Henry Moore Foundation began with the development of the Sculpture Study Centre in Leeds Art Gallery in 1982 and led to the development of the Henry Moore Institute in 1993. It now represents an unparalleled collaboration in the collection, study and presentation of sculpture. The Leeds Sculpture Collections lies at the heart of their work together, underpinned by the complimentary research and curatorial expertise of both organisations.
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Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–17:00
About the Henry Moore Foundation
The Henry Moore Foundation was founded by the artist and his family in 1977 to encourage public appreciation of the visual arts.
Today we support innovative sculpture projects, devise an imaginative programme of exhibitions and research worldwide, and preserve the legacy of Moore himself: one of the great sculptors of the 20th century, who did so much to bring the art form to a wider audience.
We run two venues, in Leeds and Hertfordshire, showing a mix of Moore’s own work and other sculpture.
We also fund a variety of sculpture projects through our Henry Moore Grants and Research programmes and we have a world-class collection of artworks which regularly tour both nationally and internationally.
A registered charity, we award grants to arts organisations around the world, with a mission to bring great sculpture to as many people as possible.