Helen Ward

Helen Ward is a leading British paper artist and designer, best known for her intricate Paper Entomology artworks, beautifully crafted butterflies, moths and beetles cut from rare Victorian hand-marbled papers and pinned with enamel entomology pins. Based in Bristol, Ward has built an internationally collected practice whose admirers include the Swedish Royal Family, the Royal Family of Thailand and Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud. She has exhibited regularly with Byard Art in Cambridge for over fifteen years.

Helen Ward graduated from UWE Bristol in 2001 with a degree in graphic design, going on to train as a traditional bookbinder and to work as a paper engineer making pop-up books. It was during this period that she began to assemble her extensive collection of antique hand-marbled papers, many dating back to Victorian times, and some considerably older, which would become the raw material of her signature Paper Entomology work. Ward has exhibited consistently with Byard Art in Cambridge since 2009, alongside Porthminster Gallery in St Ives, Sarah Wiseman Gallery in Oxford, Foss Fine Art in London, Bradford Gallery and Form Gallery. International exhibitions have included Affordable Art Fairs in New York, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Hong Kong, ArtHamptons, Art Toronto and Art Chicago, as well as the Observer Ethical Awards exhibition at the V&A in 2011.

Helen Ward’s distinctive paper entomology technique combines traditional bookbinding craftsmanship with a contemporary artist’s eye. Each butterfly, moth or beetle is hand-cut from her collection of rare Victorian hand-marbled papers, then pinned individually into place with enamel entomology pins in the style of a 19th-century specimen case. Many of the historic papers were originally coloured with pigments made from crushed beetle shells, a quiet, poetic resonance with the insects she now recreates from them. Some works incorporate additional embellishment with leaf metals, and her larger Wings Unfold and Paper Wings pieces use the same techniques at a more sculptural scale. The result is a body of work that bridges natural history, decorative art and contemporary paper craft, and that has secured Helen Ward’s place as one of the most original paper artists in Britain today.