LONDON.-The National Portrait Gallery presents Devotional, on view through 25 November 2007. Celebrating black female singers in British entertainment, this unique display is the latest development in the 'Devotional Series', a body of work by the artist Sonia Boyce. The display takes the form of an elaborately hand-drawn installation on the gallery walls: a roll call of one hundred and eighty names. The names will be illustrated by portraits of several of the singers, among them Shirley Bassey, Joan Armatrading, Des'ree and Ms.Dynamite.

The Devotional Series began with a group of women from Liverpool, brought together with Sonia Boyce through the Motherlode project, in association with the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT). Asked to sing and recall the first record they ever bought, the women in the group began to build a collective map of black women in the British music industry. The first name to be nominated was Shirley Bassey and from that the Devotional Series began.

Today the list contains 180 names. It has been produced twice (in different forms) and both of these lists (Devotional and Devotional II) now belong to the Government Art Collection. Each name celebrates an icon; each icon triggers a song; and each song a moment that is as significant to a personal memory as it is to a generation's collective memory. Ranging from the infamous to the unsung, from the early part of the twentieth century to the present, the Devotional Series is a group portrait that upholds the existence, the pleasures and the persistence of women who choose to sing.

For the first time, with this installation at the National Portrait Gallery, London, Devotional will include nineteen photographic portraits of singers included in the series. Representing the work of prominent photographers working in the music industry, these portraits will include works by Bob Collins, Pennie Smith, Kofi Allen, Albert Watson and Andy Earl.

As a body of work, the Devotional Series is a mutable concept, continually re-designing itself to embody aspects of its host, in this case the National Portrait Gallery's Photographic Collection. As the culmination of a decade of gathering, Sonia Boyce will tailor this new piece as a special appraisal of the series so far. The inscription of the names directly onto the Gallery walls will commence at the beginning of June and take approximately two weeks.

Eddie Otchere, Assistant Curator and Inspire Fellow, says: 'To curate a display like this, is to develop a sensitivity with the subjects of the Devotional Series. Through their songs you engage with the source of their meaning and power. By collecting their iconography you present their histories through portrait photography.'

Sonia Boyce (b.1962) is a British artist of African-Caribbean descent, living and working in London. Her early pastel drawings and photographic collages address issues of race, ethnicity and contemporary urban experience, questioning racial stereotypes in the media and in day-to-day life. Most recently her work has shifted to incorporate a variety of media that combine photographs, collages, films, prints, drawings, installation and sound. Sonia has worked with other people in what she likes to call 'improvised collaborations', bringing the audience into sharper focus as an integral part of the creative process and demonstrating how cultural difference might be articulated, mediated and enjoyed.