Ayesha Jones: The Backbone

Join us to celebrate the launch of The Backbone (2025), a new photo book by artist Ayesha Jones. This free, informal event is an opportunity to meet the artist and her collaborators (speeches 6pm) and pick up a signed copy of the publication.

The Backbone is available to pre-order online at Ikon Shop, priced £35.

In this intimate and activating imagery the artist, through her photographic practice, explores idiopathic scoliosis as a lens to address broader female health. This project brings together personal narratives and collective experiences, illuminating the experiences of females who have been historically marginalised in medical discourse, and includes newly commissioned writing.

Through a series of evocative photographs and intimate reflections, Jones shares her journey with severe scoliosis, using the condition as a vehicle to challenge misconceptions and advocate for the urgent need for comprehensive understanding of female health. The book highlights often-overlooked narratives surrounding female experiences, emphasising the importance of visibility, representation, and research in transforming healthcare and societal perceptions.

The Backbone invites readers to engage in critical conversations about identity, health, and the power of storytelling, ultimately fostering a deeper understanding of the complexities of the female body in a groundbreaking new body of work and call to action for equitable healthcare.

The Backbone is published by GRAIN Projects. Designed by Chris Neophytou, Out of Place Books. Supported by Arts Council England and GRAIN Projects.

About the artist

Ayesha Jones (b. 1990) is an artist based in the West Midlands. She works predominantly with photography and film and is interested in art as a catalyst for growth, healing and social impact. Jones’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and she has won awards, including Magnum Photos and The Photography Show’s 30 under 30 international award, Portrait of Britain (2022 and 2023) and Decade of Change. Jones’ solo exhibition Motherland was exhibited as part of Coventry City of Culture 2021. She uses her family lineage as a mixed heritage person, to highlight the interconnected nature of identity, humanity, nature and all things.