Eric Gill

Eric Gill was a master typographer, sculptor and wood-engraver, and a devoted family man and key personality in three Catholic art and craft communities. He also believed in complete sexual freedom. The author analyzes these apparent contradictions and considers Gill, the man and the artist.

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Eric Gill was a typographer and lettercutter whose typefaces still feature in our lives, especially his Perpetua and Gill Sans. He was also a sculptor and wood-engraver. He was a key personality in three Catholic art and craft communities at Ditchling, Capel-y-ffin and Pigotts. He was a devoted family man but, at the same time, he was fickle and quarrelsome and a believer in complete sexual freedom. He had a succession of mistresses and affairs. In this biography the author analyzes these apparent contradictions. Fiona MacCarthy directed the Omega Workshops Exhibition at the Crafts Council in 1984, and in 1987 "Eye for Industry" at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She wrote "A History of British Design", "British Design Since 1880" and "Simple Life". She was awarded the Royal Society of Arts Bicentenary Medal for 1987.