THESE days weddings come in all shapes and sizes from traditional ceremonies in churches, tieing the knot in register offices, posh packaged hotel dos, to marriage vows exchanged on exotic white beaches in far flung places or mountain tops.

Not a couple to bow to convention, John Fox and Sue Gill, the creative brains behind Welfare State International, published a tome in 1996 which inspired alternative ways of celebrating another of life rituals - the funeral.

Following on from the Dead Good Funerals Book, Ulverston's imaginative duo have taken a somewhat taboo subject a step further and are staging Dead - towards an end to conveyor-belt funerals.

WSI and the project's curator Andree Cooke have commissioned a score of international creators, fashion and product designers to come up with functional objects for future funerals.

All exhibits will be donated by the artists and will be auctioned to fund an artist's bursary with WSI.

The exhibition will get a national splash on March 1, at London's Roundhouse, on Chalk Farm Road, before opening at WSI's Lanternhouse on March 29.