The Mountains Are Calling…..

An exhibition for World Book Night 2026

Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol

Thursday 2nd April – Friday 31st July 2026

Our 200+ entries were posted by 189 artists in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, USA.

The artworks on display are over the main gallery boards, vitrines and cabinets in the library: WBN is organised by Sarah Bodman and Linda Parr with input from Nancy Campbell. 

The Smoking Mountain

That distinctive plume of smoke attracted my eye across the aircraft gangway. I was incredulous to see Popocatépetl so clearly at 28,000 feet. A name forever embedded in my brain.

My primary school teacher loved to make us regularly sing ‘Popocatépetl’ in major scale sequences as she accompanied us enthusiastically on the piano. She felt it was the perfect word to exercise our young mouths.

Aztec mythology tells of the warrior Popocatépetl, who was sent to war by the Emperor who promised him his daughter Princess Iztaccihuatl if he returned victorious from battle. Iztaccihuatl, deceived by a jealous rival into believing him to be lost in battle, died of grief. When Popocatépetl returned to find his beloved dead, he carried her body for days until he finally laid her on top of a mountain, keeping watch over her with a burning torch, covering her with a blanket of snow. The gods, moved by the lover’s devotion, turned them both into volcanoes.

Popocatépetl is an active volcano still smoking, watching over the nearby volcano Iztaccíhuati on the outskirts of Mexico City raining fire on the earth in blind rage at the loss of his beloved,