Danish postal service's last letters used in art

An artist is collecting the final letters sent by a 400-year-old postal service to create a piece of art.

Denmark's national postal service PostNord now only delivers parcels after it stopped its letter service in December due to a drop in demand.

Artist Gillian Taylor is using the final postcards and letters sent to her to create an art installation called Med Venlig Hilsen, or in English, With Kind Regards, to go on display at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, in Honiton, in Devon, in May.

She invited Danes to write to her one last time to commemorate the end of the Danish postal service.

PostNord announced in March it would cease letter services at the end of 2025.

Taylor, from Devon, who once worked in Copenhagen, said: "PostNord ending their delivery of letters and removing the post boxes feels like such a significant moment that I wanted to mark it by creating some art."

She asked people to write her letters and cards in Danish or English and said: "There's all sorts of things people have written about.

"There's a wonderful one someone has written about her childhood memories of her mum reading letters aloud."

She said she also received pictures, cards and a map of the last three post boxes in one area.

She has also been given permission by the Royal Danish Library to use copies of letters sent by Hans Christian Andersen to Charles Dickens in her work.

Danish author Andersen is best known for his literary fairytales The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen and The Ugly Duckling.

Taylor asked people to send their letters to a PO Box address.

Karen Elberg sent Taylor a letter from Denmark and said: "It that was very strange, because I last wrote one 20 years ago.

"You write things in a letter that you wouldn't put in an email and the reply is so slow."

PostNord said Denmark was one of the world's most digitalised countries and email and phone apps were now the preferred methods of communication.

Isabella Beck Jørgensen, from PostNord, said they stopped the letter post because "for the past 25 years we've seen a major decline in letters in Denmark".

She added Taylor's exhibition was a "lovely artistic idea" and it would be "emotional" and "important for (Danish) children that did not grow up with letters".

The installation will be made up of daisies cut out of the letters which will then be suspended from a ceiling.

The daisy is the national flower of Denmark.

Taylor hopes to display the work in Copenhagen.