Devon-based artist Amy Shelton visited Okehampton Library last week to talk about her newest artwork, created as part of the grief cafe support, run by Libraries Unlimited.

Her artwork, entitled The Gathering, was created from pressed flowers donated to her by members of the public as a way of addressing grief and isolation.

Amy invited members of the public to dedicate a preserved flower and short message to a lost loved one from which she created a collage of flowers and handwritten messages in a lightbox.

She said: ‘The idea of it was to put together many different pressed flowers as possible to represent the people of Okehampton and Holsworthy and the areas in between them, served by the mobile library. It is a gathering of flowers - a big bouquet of kindness and thought and people being able to represent, in a quiet way, the people that they’ve missed.’

Emily Macauley, service delivery manager for Exeter, Teignbridge and East Devon, said: ‘We are really aware that people use their library to connect and we were finding that people people were losing that during covid.

‘So the grief cafe formed into an idea of how we could help people deal with loss. It’s been an amazing project. Grief is a massive thing and it was a way of connecting.’

The artwork will go on tour to all the other participating libraries before reaching its final destination where it will be displayed at a nearby health centre.