Artists from diverse disciplines explored the history, myths and reality in the midst of the Black Country through a programme of commissions which I devised and directed, with support from Geoff Broadway and Graham Peet - working with Jubilee Arts and The Public, with funding from Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Arts Council England and British Waterways.

There are many peculiarities in this world, not least those inspired by locality and disposition, those ‘great wonders and curiosities’ as Marco Polo would have it. The Wonders are a series of projects in which artists set about questioning people’s thoughts and attachments to a local area – in this instance, the old constituencies of West Bromwich and Warley, which combined in 1974 to form the new metropolitan borough of Sandwell – explorations of the history, myths and reality in this part of the Black Country.

‘To define the Black Country is about as difficult as trying to tie up a jelly with string,’ wrote Alton Douglas in his introduction to Memories of the Black Country.

The Artists were: Nettie Edwards, Harry Palmer, Geoff Broadway, Richard Billingham, Rob Irving, Paul Rooney, Steve Page, Caroline Jupp and Sam Brown, Annie Mahtani, Ania Bas & Alicja Rogalska, Mark Gubb, Rich Franks, Peter Hill, Richard Layzell, Jake Oldenshaw & Trevor Pitt, Claire Thornton, Seven Inch Cinema.