A manifesto is a public declaration of intent, an opportunity to put into words your hopes and dreams, your vision and plans. It’s a way to encourage support for your ideas, to influence others and inspire support for your point of view. For this exhibition, Letter Exchange invited its members to submit works based around the theme of manifestos. The broad brief allowed participants to explore this rich and diverse catalogue of texts to discover phrases and passages that resonate with them or indeed inspire them to create their own.

As a result, the words in the exhibition are eclectic and diverse, in turns enigmatic, obscure, uplifting and inspirational. But this diversity of content in matched by the range of approaches to the treatment of those texts’. From the catalogue introduction to the exhibition by Mark Noad, Chairman, Letter Exchange. Hopes and Dreams includes work by 27 members of Letter Exchange, including John Neilson, Tom Perkins, Rosella Garavaglia, Susan Hufton, Mark Frith and Ann Bowen. As a coda to the show, works from the Crafts Study Centre lettering collections are also displayed.

This exhibition is curated by Letter Exchange.