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 an enclosed, immersive sculpture that replicates a recovery truck cabin. Inside, visitors sit on appliquéd car seats, surrounded by the objects and ephemera of the Roadwytch. Alongside this textile pieces of the Roadwytch’s attire through the ages hang poignantly with interactive elements for the audience to engage with. Other works include new ceramic Roadwytch masks that highlight a range of vehicular practices and an intricate installation of cast metal charms. 

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. These physical elements are brought together through performative photographic tableaux, where they become visual narratives that evoke both archival documentation and surreal fever dreams.

Bove’s roving exhibition The Museum of Roadside Magic (M.O.R.M)  has toured locations throughout the UK including  Tate St Ives, Martin Parr Foundation, New Contemporaries, OD Arts and the Box Plymouth.  In 2024 the M.O.R.M. was awarded the Kenneth Armitage sculpture prize, and the accompanying monograph, Roadside Magic, was included in the Vaughan Williams Memorial library. Her work is in the Government Art Collection alongside many private collections.

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