Obiter Dicta by Alexa Wright

Piece of Paper Press is delighted to have published Obiter Dicta: an accidental conversation between visitors at Frieze London 2025 by Alexa Wright. Obiter Dicta continues Wright’s fascination with human language and how we make meaning. For several years, Wright has been obsessively collecting fragments of conversation overheard on the streets close to where she lives in London. Two previous artist’s books – Beside the Point and Between the Lines (both 2025) – have combined and reordered selections of these disconnected found utterances to create slightly absurd narratives. These texts are presented in juxtaposition with close-up photos of everyday life, many capturing random details of the same streets in which the fragments of conversation were collected. Building on those recent artist’s books, but bringing this writing practice back into the heart of the art world in London, Wright’s book for Piece of Paper Press contains a short, fictional – possibly nonsensical – dialogue-based story compiled from unattributed and otherwise unconnected fragments of conversation overheard at Frieze London 2025 during her visit on 17 October. More than a collection of non-sequiturs, Obiter Dicta creates an evocative glimpse of one of the world’s most influential contemporary art fairs, in the words of a fleeting cross-section of visitors as they experience it.

Alexa Wright is an artist whose practice spans a range of media, including photography, video, interactive installation and book-works. She has often worked in collaboration with medical scientists, and many of her projects have involved working together with people with mental or physical differences or those living with difficult life circumstances. Alexa’sinterest has recently shifted towards an exploration of our relationship with the natural world. Her work has been widely shown internationally, in festivals such as: Kochi Biennale, India; FILE, SESI Art Gallery, Sao Paolo, Brazil; DaDaFest International, Liverpool; International Women Artists’ Biennale, Incheon, Korea; and Athens Photo Festival. Inside Stories, a series of 11 short video diptychs co-created with participants in three UK prisons was shown at Saatchi Gallery, London, in 2023, and in MK Calling 2024, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes.