IOM3 Investigates...the art of Viva Talbot with Dr Joan Heggie

IOM3 Head of Design Lara Collins talks to Dr Joan Heggie about the life and work of Viva Talbot, the artist who engraved the steel industry.

In this episode, Head of Design Lara Collins speaks with Dr Joan Heggie, historian, researcher and curator of the 2025 exhibition Viva Talbot: Steelmaking, to explore the life, craft and legacy of a woman who captured the steel industry with exceptional technical precision.

The discussion traces Talbot’s unconventional route into wood engraving, her family ties to ironmaster Benjamin Talbot, and how she gained access to blast furnaces, quarries and mines at a time when industrial spaces were overwhelmingly male.. Joan explains how Talbot documented every stage of steelmaking - from mining raw materials to rolling finished plate - and why the 15 engravings in the IOM3 collections remain such rare examples of industrial woodcut work.

The conversation also looks at the wider arc of Talbot’s life: her early sketchbooks and diaries, her collaborations and influences, her extensive travels, and her transition from artist to Lady Nussey of Rushwood Hall. Joan reflects on the challenges of conserving fragile prints, the gaps that still remain in Talbot’s biography, and her ongoing project to compile a comprehensive catalogue raisonné. 

For enquiries about the Viva Talbot: Steelmaking exhibition or Dr Heggie's work please email: joan.heggie2022@outlook.com

Music
Pamgaea by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/