AN ARTIST who produces his work from scrap parts has commemorated the First World War in his latest project, which is going on a tour of the district.

Geoff Latz, 56, has used copper wire to make soldiers, and stones, twigs, sand, metal and handles from jute shopping bags to make sandbags.

The poignant piece depicts a trench scene from the Battle of Verdun in France.

His grandfather Benno Ernst Latz, who he never got to know, was a doctor in the trenches on the German side. He had a sanatorium in Berlin but, being Jewish, fled the Nazis around 1936-38 to start a new life in America, opening a practice in Wall Street, New York.

"My grandfather was very much in my mind as I researched the Verdun piece," said Geoff.

"I used materials that related to the real story of the trenches – mud, the wire, the metal – so my work would be even more real to the people who come to see it."

The Battle of Verdun is on display at Bradford's City Library until tomorrow (Nov 4), before touring the district.

It will move to Keighley Local Studies Library to coincide with the screening of the Imperial War Museum’s film The Battle of The Somme on November 19.

Verdun was the longest single battle of the First World War, fought between the French and German armies from February 21 to December 18, 1916.

There was an estimated 70,000 casualties a month.

To see more of Mr Latz's work, go to latzart.