JOSHUA DAVID HESTER


Joshua Hester is a UK-based writer, visual artist, and publishing practitioner. His work centres around Books as both vessel and voice—embracing and reimagining their form through self-published poetry, performance, and handcrafted editions. Rooted in rhythm, reflection, and community, his practice considers how personal expression meets shared experience through the printed word.

WORKS
DESIGN
WORDS

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Every design is a moment of stillness pulled from motion — a quiet shape in the chaos. What I do is not just design, but a kind of listening. To nature. To space. To people. To the unseen harmony that wants to emerge. These works are traces of that practice — one that is deeply lived, gently refined, and forever unfolding.

Exhibitions
Well Books Fair
Co-hosted with Exhibition
Fusebox, Kingston
March 2025
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FuseWell
Hosted Creative Event
Fusebox, Kingston
September 2024

Creative Sparks
Showcasing Art Books & Poetry
Fusebox, Exhibition
February 2024


Press
Meet Joshua Hester
Learning the Craft
7.05.25  |  Canvas Rebel
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Well Books Fair
7.03.25  |  Stanley Picker Gallery
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Meet our new Creative Talent Programme Artist!
27.03.2024  |  Creative Youth
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Creative Sparks - February 2024
29.02.2024  |  Creative Youth
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Creative Sparks - Care & Healing
19.02.2024  |  Creative Youth
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Education
Creatives in Publishing: Binding a Path to Being Published
Camden Art Centre
[2025]

BA Graphic Design (First) 
Kingston University 
[4 years]

Experience Freelance Web Design
Great Garden Designs
2025

Poetic Book Binding Workshop #2
Esher College
Christopher Knowles
2025

Book Arts Workshop
Ham Youth Club
2025

Freelance Web Design
Bishops Gardening Services
2025

Parkour Coach
Foucan Academy
2023-Present

Poetic Book Binding Workshop #1
Esher College
Christopher Knowles
2024

Artist in Residence
Fusebox, Creative Youth
Kingston Upon Thames
2024-25

Branding & Design Internship
Muneebah Creative
Remote (London)
2022-23

Ralph & Co Creative
London
2017


Skills
Creating space
Connecting people
Typesetting
Page Composition
Editorial Design
Poetic Book Binding
Writing Poetry with ease
Storytelling (Visual & Written)
Long-stitch Book Binding
Case Bound Book Binding
Coptic stitch Binding
Pamphlet Binding
線裝 xian zhuang (Stab) Binding
Intuitive Design Harmony
Spoken Word Performance
Screenprinting garments
Book cover design


AwardsCreative Talent Programme 
Artist Residency
Fusebox: Creative Youth
2024-25

Last Updated 13.05.25
WORDS





Whispers From Illyria (2022-24)
Poems for Contemplation


I

The body
from earth to sky
Fills with light
everything floats up
and out
and down                           

III
a mind speaks
from a cave

the stable mountain
sways in the wind





V


   
the kids feet
patter on the oak floor
shrouded in laughter

a young girl refuses
to loosen her laces   






When Herons Speak (2025)
Poems from Brazil

The farm occupies a unique place in my dreamland. I often visualize Dora as a lotus leaf with the edges of a banana tree. Next to Dora is I, a lotus seed, lean and sharply sculptured by the mountain winds. Lost in translation, I am held dearly in the middle of my Mum's palm. 
    So when He tells me stories from the farm, building the landscape of that dreamland, I can never grasp how I grew on this side of the world. I would pass Dora every morning on that walk through the farmland on the way to our blue hut. It was in that hut that Mum would close her gentle fire and breathe. 


 After the unjust scoldings from the inner city few, lost in translation, we covered our faces and hands with blankets as the town passed through us. Even at One, stumbling along cobbled Belo streets holding Mum’s hand I knew she would not mind if I began to surface, all those wonderful things from the darkness.




Effortless Books
Essay


This study explores the concept of ‘wu wei’ in Daoist philosophy, similar to the idea of ‘flow,’ and how, as artists, we can apply its wisdom to the creative process.
        The aim is to, first, explain the fundamental ideas of Daoism, making it accessible for contemporary Western understanding and creative application. Then, to shed light on what I have learnt through my own experience. Regardless of the gap in time between the words originally spoken and the people reading them today, it resonates wholly with our modern, mundane life. 
    By introducing and then applying these principles to my creative practice, through analysis and reflection, I aim to open you up to ways of experimenting with your own.

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