Gwilym Hughes is interested in human character and narrative, how past lives can become symbols of something else in contemporary minds. We may have a view of people from history that has very little to do with their actual lives. Working mainly with woodcut he likes to use pieces from old furniture (it comes with its own history), and anything found or salvaged – tricky to work with and unpredictable – allowing a dialogue with the material. Recent work includes a series of woodcuts inspired by portraits of unknown people by unknown artists held in the archives of Salford Art Gallery.