Centum is an Artists Book commissioned by Baillie Gifford, an Edinburgh based Financial investment company, to celebrate their centenary in 2008. 

Through its double-sided concertina form, it tracks and traces the history of the company and its different geographical locations in Edinburgh, within the context of financial world events, over the last one hundred years.

The original drawings are drawn in situ around Edinburgh and the Baillie Gifford offices, executed in Indian Ink on stretched watercolour paper.

One side of the book features a topographical timeline while the reverse side depicts a continuous panoramic drawing, a 360º view of Edinburgh skyline from the Baillie Gifford boardroom. It also features short texts based on material from the Baillie Gifford archives and poems that explore the etymology of financial terms and expressions

David Faithfull worked from a studio set up in the company’s headquarters to realize the project, together with collaborators Grazyna Fremi and poet Ken Cockburn



ISBN 978-0-9558946-0-2