Originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, Dean's bookwork uses text to investigate the disparity between actual personal experience and the artist's ability to convey these experiences with any veracity, using the very intimacy of observation to produce autonomy from specific context. Rooted in the minutiae of everyday life, Dean uses minimal written phrases as his predominant mode of communication. His texts appear to evoke the fabric of personal experience - populated as they are with the first names of individuals, and the objects that surround them. Here, he presents a collection of existing and new work; these 'word pictures' - devoid of narrative or context - are drawn from his memories of growing up on Tyneside to present an intimate, yet fragmented portrait of 1980s youth. Dean's work forms part of Other Plans, a project initiated as a critical response to the significant regeneration projects taking place in Newcastle and Gateshead against the background of the bids for City of Culture.