Interviewed in a pub for the BBC South West documentary Union Street in 1985, Cook said: “To be able to paint, I really need to see everything that’s going on.”
She added: “I love all the groups of girls all coming down together and the fellas all in groups.”
Laughing, beer in hand, she admitted; “I’d love a flat over Kentucky Fried Chicken.
“Just so we could sit in the window at night and watch everything.”
The Box describes Cook as a “cultural chronicler” who painted marginalised people and recorded their lives with joy, kindness and reverence.
Terah Walkup, who curated the exhibition, said: “She did it with genuine affection, technical mastery and unflinching honesty.
“Her work from the 1970s to 2000s captures working-class joy, body positivity, and queer culture with a sophistication that’s only now being fully recognised.”