Parallel Lives looks at the careers and experiences of nine women artists, all born within 20 years of each other: Sybil Andrews, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Prunella Clough, Ithell Colquhoun, Evelyn Dunbar, Gertrude Hermes, Barbara Jones, Enid Marx and Monica Poole. Published to coincide with an exhibition at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, this book is intended as a celebration of the lives and work of these contrasting and highly accomplished artists. Each was an original and innovative creative force whose work has an enduring appeal. The exhibition and book take each artist as an individual, following their triumphs and challenges, but also highlighting moments when their careers and experiences overlapped and corresponded.

Their work covers a range of media: sculpture, painting, printmaking, textile design and book illustration. They are also stylistically diverse. Sybil Andrews' colourful linocuts drew on the energy of Futurism, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a major figure at St Ives exploring both landscape and abstraction, Prunella Clough's work travelled from Neo-Romanticism to highly personal and ambiguous studies of urban settings, Ithell Colquhoun drew on Surrealism and the occult to create a wholly unique body of work, Evelyn Dunbar was the only salaried woman war artist during the Second World War, Gertrude Hermes explored nature and the human form in dynamic prints and sculpture, Barbara Jones was one of the stars of the wartime Recording Britain project, Enid Marx brought a designer's eye to textiles, painting, printmaking and book illustration, Monica Poole captured the landscapes of Kent in hauntingly beautiful wood engravings.