h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...Because when I do my part-time job as an invigilator in Bradford University's art gallery, hardly a day goes by without someone coming up to my desk and asking if I created all the work on display. It doesn't matter if the artist's name and/or biography is prominently displayed; I even got asked the question when we had an exhibition of photographic prints by the novelist and poet Joolz Denby, and a large picture of Ms. Denby was on view beside the entrance.

Sadly, of course, I always have to own up that someone else did the creating and I'm just minding the shop. But it is nevertheless rather flattering, and I certainly appreciate my good luck in being able to get paid to sit surrounded by beautiful images. At present, until October 13, we have an exhibition of paintings and woodcuts by Richard Wincer, whose paintings on plywood really are very lovely; he brilliantly incorporates the grain and texture of the wood into his images. If you happen to be passing the University on a Monday or a Friday, drop in and say 'hello'; it's often fairly quiet in here (I'm typing this on a computer in the gallery). But if you can't make it, you can still see some of Mr. Wincer's work here: http://www.richardwincer.co.uk/ .

Ormy, I suppose you could answer in the affirmative and sell your autograph.

Invigilator. Not a word you hear in WC very often. It does sound like a pleasant job. I think I might like to be a museum or gallery curator in my next lifetime.

To quote Charles Babbage, "I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." I wonder if people walk in and ask Hyp if she wrote all the books on display.

No, Bagpuss, but they do assume I've read all of them and can provide a critical review of each one so they don't actually have to read anything themselves.

I've now found out that our next exhibition in the Gallery will be of prints by David Hockney, that world-famous artistic Bradfordian. I wonder if people will *still* ask me if it's all my own work? I look a little bit like Mr. Hockney, so perhaps I'll claim that I'm his son, the product of a brief heterosexual experiment in his younger days.