The invigilator at the Octagon pointed me in the direction of a five storey building full of art, but I never did find that. Instead I ended up at FaB3 on (hang on, let me check, in umpteen decades of living near and visiting Bath I never have managed to absorb the street names there) Cheap Street. Ground floor and cellar; A Dialogue on Nothing in Art. I particular liked two muted, abstract pieces by John Taylor, Expressions of Oppression and Hope, and a grid of nine even more muted and abstract images by Lee Riley, entitled Un, but downstairs in the cellar I liked the cellar best - that's not a judgement of the audio pieces down there, I just found the cellar fascinating, with its low arches and old tiles and little off-stage rooms full of darkness, the weight of a whole building just above my head.
On Stall Street (and I never knew before that there was a Stall Street) I found a couple of shows where I did linger. Out of the Box drew me in - I'll call it Cornell-like, and hope that anyone who knows better and disagrees will accept my ignorance and move on. Essentially, we're talking art in boxes, dioramas, something contained. I've been trying to pin down the appeal - is it exactly that containment, rather like a 3D version of an artist's book? Or that it's quite miniature, with a touch of dollshouse? The setting up of a stage, a still life? Probably a combination of all those and more, but whatever the reason I really liked them. Here's a selection.
Finally, a quick mention for art in shops (there was just so much art knocking about on this trip!). Newly opened Anthropologie (this is not a plug) had at least three artists showing there, including Sally Muir, she of the dog a day website, who had a wall to herself. And I found somewhere called Cethegrande, which describes itself as an antique shop but has to be the definition of a curiosity shop, with fantasy window dressing and all sorts of fascinating things inside, from old chemist shop bottles (complete with unidentified powders and other residues) to a bottled jellyfish (very small), a lamb's heart, various shellfish carapaces, and a ton of other unexpected items. It wasn't so much that there was art in the shop, but I think you could argue that the whole shop was a piece of art. Amazing.