(Private view: 13 September from 6-8pm, all welcome)

One Year On is a collection of works by paper artist Lucy Dorothy Nichols to celebrate the joy of storytelling.

But it isn’t a collection celebrating your average story . . . no, this is a world where stories that seem impossible to believe are perfectly plausible, a world where dreams and reality are delicately intertwined.

Taking titles from the Observer Pocket Book series as her starting point, Lucy has disregarded the wealth of interesting facts and figures contained within the pages of those well-loved, little reference books and instead conjured up a series of intricate paper sculptures which turn those facts and figures upside down.

Stories, created from treasured papers, old envelopes, discarded wrapping paper and even the odd chocolate bar wrapper, now spill out from between the pages of these colourful little books. There are tales of shops selling musical notes by the jar, of marvellously magical rainbow-making machines, and if you look up, you’ll be able to wonder at skies full of birds laden down with bags, all flying off on their latest adventure.

Lucy Dorothy Nichols was honoured as Surrey’s Artist of the Year 2023 in a prestigious competition organised by the New Ashgate Gallery in partnership with Surrey Artists Open Studios.

New Ashgate Gallery open Tues-Sat 10.30am-5pm