Holy Island documents an eight-day journey made by photographer Kingsley Ifill and painter Danny Fox in December 2021. Setting off from near Dover, Kent, they travelled up the east coast as far as the Isle of Skye, Scotland, then returned by way of the West Midlands, Wales and other locations. With no predetermined course, the trip was one of intuition and self-led discovery, encountering and documenting the British landscape as it unfolded ahead of them.

The book is composed of fifty collaborative works on paper that bring together photography by Ifill and paintings by Fox. It forms a visual travelogue of their time together and an exploration into the cross-section of rural and urban fabric that makes up Britain today. Through intuition and self-discovery, their collaborative practice extends conversations between the mediums of painting and photography. Previous collective publications include Eye for a Sty, Tooth for the Roof and Haze, both published by Tarmac Press in 2020.

Kingsley Ifill (b. 1988) lives and works between Kent, UK and Paris, France. His tactile practice explores screenprinting, photocopying, darkroom printing and risograph, as well as a deep connection to printed matter through his independent publishing imprint Tarmac Press. Danny Fox (b. 1986) lives and works in Cornwall, UK. Profoundly influenced by native St Ives, Fox conjures wild and wonderful scenes of coastal Britain alongside expressive paintings exploring tragedy, promise, violence and sex.

Holy Island was exhibited at Hannah Barry Gallery in London in early 2022. The 104-page book measures 250 × 305 mm, contains 50 images, and was published in September 2022 as a section-sewn softcover with a triple-hit silkscreen cover. It was nominated for the Prix du Livre, Rencontres d’Arles 2023. An accompanying silkscreen edition is also available.