Vision and Language: Alasdair Gray's Visual and Literary Archive

A Royal Society of Edinburgh funded project delivered by Professor Alan Riach (Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow), Sorcha Dallas and Dr Ken Neil (Forum for Critical Enquiry, The Glasgow School of Art)

This project forms an interdisciplinary investigation into the relations between Literature and the Visual Arts within Alasdair Gray’s visual, written and published work. The project is a key step towards a unique, public resource of Gray’s visual archive and a comprehensive catalogue of published and manuscript written work. That planned resource will become a point of reference, in Scotland, for word and image studies internationally.

Using the existing archive of the Alasdair Gray Foundation as source, managed by collaborator Sorcha Dallas, the project will examine through commissioned essays and workshop events the relation between literature and visual art in Gray’s work, and with other related fields in sociology and urbanism, and will set down a plan of research action for the future elaboration of the archive in physical and online forms.

event 1: the literary

Where: The Melville Room (see campus map - next to A13) Main Gilbert Scott Building, Glasgow University
When: Friday 28th September, 2–5pm
(with a drinks reception after)
Commissioned essay by Professor Alan Riach, with responses by Will Self and Cairns Craig. Discussion to follow.


First published: 28 September 2012