Debbie Cook is interested in the role that autobiographical inheritance plays in influencing our work and sense of identity. As a designer and illustrator, she is particularly interested in how we can draw on our own private experiences to bring a sense of authenticity to the stories we are asked to tell in our role as commissioned artists.

She is best known for her collaborative work with designers, and for her use of historical archives. Carefully researched and composed, her work has a narrative focus based on factual themes. She has a particular fascination for the object and how that can be used to convey narrative.

Debbie Cook’s current work explores the ways in which we have bestowed meanings upon Freud’s collection of archaeological finds. Through the process of drawing these works uncover, layer by layer, the new perspectives that can be given to historical artefacts.

Her drawings often depict aspects of our working lives. From 2005 to 2008 she was adviser to a project that explored the contemporary and historical importance of work-derived identities and their relationships to social action. The project was part of Identities and Social Action, an ESRC Research Programme at the Open University.