Brightly coloured and smiling, this bear was made in a prison cell by someone who had plenty of time on their hands. Letters, cards and gifts pass constantly into and out of prisons – handmade greetings cards or even paper bears work to maintain relationships with families and friends which are disrupted by incarceration.

Paper ‘apps’ (application forms) are everywhere in prison, used for raising queries and asking permission. The maker has used hundreds of individual folded apps in a method known in prison as ‘trigami’.

The bear is featured in Incarcerated: contemporary arts from the Victorian prison, open at Midlands Art Centre until 18 February 2024. The exhibition is informed by an ongoing research project called The Persistence of the Victorian Prison.