Within this magical realm, plant knowledge and ritual form essential roles in the repair and maintenance of everyday vehicles. Inspired by Albion's rich history of folk magic, alongside her own lived experience of life on the road, both professionally and domestically, Roadside Magic seeks to re-establish the valuable role of everyday ritual. Through it Bove posits that folk customs are just as deeply embedded within urban landscapes and on road verges, as they are within a flowering meadow.

The exhibition unfolds as a series of quasi-artefacts and documentary style imagery, with Bove’s ROADWYTCH film, recently commissioned by Exeter Phoenix, forming the backdrop. Within the space sculpture, photography and moving imagery, masquerade as historical and archival material creating an intimate portrait of a skilled practitioner seemingly existing in a world that could have been.

Central to the exhibition is Fleet Support Vehicle, a mixed media sculpture and fully operational tricycle, containing tools, herbs, charms to revive a stranded wagon.  Situated in a private viewing area is ROADWYTCH, commissioned by Exeter Phoenix in 2025, this short film shows an intimate portrait of a skilled practitioner, undertaking her daily duties and rituals.

Alongside this textile pieces of the Roadwytch’s attire through the ages hang poignantly (Roadwytches Mask & Decorated Overalls;  Roadwytches Winter Jacket) with interactive elements for the audience to engage with. Other works include a series of new ceramic masks that highlight a range of Roadlore practices (Starting Mask, Owned by an M.O.T. Specialist, Elder Roadwytches mask & Hood) an intricate installation of vehicular charms and spells, and a collection of photographs depicting the objects and costumes in their imagined historical contexts (Elder Roadwytch; Scrying, Haytor Rocks; A Roadwytch locates a stranded wagon using Scrying, Radstock; Disguised in a beastly costume a Roadwytch heads out to clap for diesel).

The exhibition’s interactive elements allow visitors of all ages to engage with folklore and reshape traditional practices. Throughout the show, folk ritual and magic are reframed as they once were, woven into the fabric of the everyday.

The Way of the Roadwytch is the central exhibition of Staffordshire St’s annual Festival of Community, a 4 week programme of co-created events and workshops. 

Libby Bove is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and folklorist. Her work is centred around ideas which reposition folk custom and magical practice back at the forefront of daily life. Drawing on archival methodologies and documentary, her work slips between fact and fiction. By employing traditional craft processes, plausibility is woven into constructed myths; transposing ideas of ancient customs, traditions and rituals into incongruous contemporary settings, non-existent pasts, and speculative future landscapes. Working across a range of media including ceramics, textiles and found objects, she creates sculptural works, masks, and wearable costume pieces. Authenticity, and the potential for the work to be believable, is integral to her practice; physical works are often accompanied by ‘field’ recordings, ‘documentation’ of folk songs, and descriptive ‘historic’ texts, all aimed at crafting a palpable form of surround sound storytelling. 

Libby Bove. b.1991. Graduated from Bath Spa University in 2024, with a BA in Fine Art. Awards include, Henry Moore Foundation Artists Award (2025), New Contemporaries (2024), The Hari Art Prize (2024), The Kenneth Armitage Sculpture Prize (2024), Spike Island Studio Fellowship (2024) and The Porthleven Prize (2022). Notable Exhibitions & Commissions include: New Contemporaries, I.C.A. (2025); Reimagining the Archive Commission, The Box Plymouth, (2025) Lore & Land, Touring (2024/25); The Museum of Roadside Magic (2024-ongoing).

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