My new philosophy

 

Detail from The Maiden Flight,  2013. One-of-a-kind vertical artist book, pigmented drawing ink and acrylic paint, 80 x 15 cm (open). Collection: State Library of Victoria. 

Photography: Tim Gresham. 

Last days of BETWEEN THE SHEETS

Progeny, 2018, one-of-a-kind artist book; pigmented drawing ink,
gouache and hand stitching with cloth binding, 16.5 x 91 cm (open)

If you happen to be in Perth, WA, you have until next Saturday, 21 September, to see BETWEEN THE SHEETS 2019 before it ends its run. In this exhibition, 70 works by 59 artists from 7 countries challenge notions of the traditional book. Makers include printmakers, photographers, architects, wordsmiths, textile artists, painters, sculptors, digital artists, and a glass artist.

Two of my artist books are included in the show, both of them one-of-a-kind: Progeny, 2018 (pictured top) and Firebrand, 2017.

In this extract from the catalogue essay, Paul Uhlmann, Senior Lecturer at Edith Cowan University describes ‘... the endless list of classifications; altered books; the book as unopenable object; livre de peintre (the beautiful painter’s book); the book as performance; the book as skin and body; the book as memory object; the book as archive; the book as concept and many more. Since my initial encounter, artists’ books have grown exponentially and become an international phenomenon; many attempts have been made to define the characteristics of an artist’s book; to tame it, to give it shape but an artist’s book – a book made by an artist – will defy classification, just as all artists strive to develop their own unique voice.’

To view individual works, accompanied by statements from the artists, go HERE.

BETWEEN THE SHEETS: ARTISTS BOOKS EXHIBITION 2019
Gallery Central,
12 Aberdeen Street,
Perth WA
Hours: 10 am - 4.45 pm weekdays
11 am- 4 pm Saturday
The exhibition runs until Saturday 21 September 2019

Firebrand in BETWEEN THE SHEETS 2019

Firebrand, 2017, one-of-a-kind artist book, pigmented drawing ink

and gouache with cloth binding, 16.5 x 91 cm (open)

Photo credit: Tim Gresham

Firebrand, 2017, is one of two of my artist books to be selected for BETWEEN THE SHEETS – ARTISTS’ BOOK EXHIBITION 2019. (The other is Progeny, 2018). 

Pictured below: detailed views of Firebrand, followed by silhouetted back views of both books in the studio of photographer, Tim Gresham.

BETWEEN THE SHEETS 2019 

Gallery Central

Aberdeen Street

Perth WA 6000

The show runs from 29 August - 21 September.

For further information, go HERE.

Tall Poppies in Canberra

Tall Poppies (2013, unique artist book. Pigmented drawing ink
on Khadi paper with cloth binding, 80 x 15 cm, open). 
Collection: National Library of Australia

Pictured top: installation view of Tall Poppies (2013) our vertical concertina book, snapped yesterday at the National Library of Australia along with reflected library visitors. Click on images for a clearer view.

Many thanks to Dr. Carole Wilson for the photos.

Fallen Women at Melbourne Athenaeum Library

Back in March a handful of preview copies of MWP's latest book Fallen Women were featured on the Regional Arts Australia stand at the National Gallery of Victoria's annual Art Book Fair.

Fallen Women contains much of the leaf art that was created following the publication of my artist book Leaves of Absence. Like its predecessor, the book focuses on the virtual absence of Chinese Women during the Australian Gold Rush era. It is prefaced by a short fairy tale.

I'll be discussing these and other Moth Woman Press publications in an informal artist talk at Melbourne Athenaeum Library on Wednesday evening, July 4 from 6 - 7 pm. The event is part of Melbourne Rare Book Week. Attendance is free, but due to space restrictions, bookings are essential. For more about the talk, go HERE.

Wednesday, July 4, 6 - 7 pm
MULTIDISCIPLINARY ART MAKING
Speaker: Deborah Klein
Presented by Melbourne Athenaeum Library
Level 1
188 Collins Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone (03) 9650 3100
Or book online HERE.

For those who can't attend (but do come along if you possibly can) here is Fallen Women, page by page. Click on individual images for a clearer view.

LEAVES OF ABSENCE: 2018 Libris Awards Finalist

With the onset of the Easter break comes some terrific news: my artist book Leaves of Absence is a finalist in the 2018 Libris Awards: Australian Artists’ Book Prize at Artspace Mackay. It’s the first time I’ve entered a work in this esteemed artist books award, and I’m absolutely chuffed.

The exhibition runs from Saturday 26 May - Sunday 29 August. To learn more about the award and for a full list of this year's finalists, visit Artspace Mackay's website HERE.

FOTP2018 #2: The leaves, like women, interchange

This, the second of three zines created for the 2018 Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair, (aka FOTP2018) marks my fourth “collaboration” with American poet Emily Dickinson. (The other three, Who are You?, Alabaster Chambers and Her own Society are HERE and HERE.)

In our latest zine, Dickinson’s short poem, The leaves, like women, interchange, is matched with seven Shadow Women of Newstead Forest, adding a layer of meaning to the imagery that isn’t too far removed from its original context. 

The new zines, together with a selection from our back catalogue, will be available at the Moth Woman Press Stand.

2018 Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair
Melbourne Town Hall
Sunday 11 February 12 - 5 pm.

2018 Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair

It’s that time of year again. The legendary Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair is less than a week away and here at Moth Woman Press we’re all abuzz putting the finishing touches to three new publications. This is one of them.

As outlined in our last post, Fallen Women has a more complex structure to our more familiar eight-page mini-zines. Its sixteen pages (fifteen illustrations in full colour, prefaced by a brief introductory essay) enable us to focus in more depth than ever before on the folkloric Shadow Women of Newstead Forest.

The Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair takes place at Melbourne Town Hall next Sunday, 11 February and runs from 12 - 5 pm.

For a full rundown of Festival of the Photocopier events, go HERE:
http://www.stickyinstitute.com/fotp2018

A New Zine for a New Year (progress view)

Happy New Year and welcome back to Moth Woman Press.

I spent part of my first day back at work experimenting with a new zine structure. At 16 pages, it's a more complicated version of the 8-page cut-and-fold structure used for many MWP mini-zines. After compiling the images in a grid that was created in the Strip Designer app, I made a few photocopies in black and white so I could practice on them until I knew what I was doing.

I have renowned book artist Alisa Golden to thank for the template of what she calls a GuestX Book.

My 8-page zines are constructed from single A4 sheets. In this case, it was necessary to increase the sheet size to A3, lest the individual zine pages be too small. Aside from having to reposition two of the images so that the back cover art is in the correct place, it didn't turn out too badly, although I think I'll need to revisit Alisa's step-by-step instructions for awhile until this new method of construction becomes second nature.

The images in Fallen Women are an extension and development of the imagery in the 2017 artist book, Leaves of Absence. The zine takes its title from my solo show at Tacit Contemporary Art in November/December 2017 and some, but not all, of the leaf art is based on images that were part of that show.

All going well, Fallen Women will burst into glorious leafy colour at the 2018 Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair on February 11. Although that date will come around quickly enough, there's still time to tweak the new publication a little more - for example, I'm considering the addition of a brief introductory paragraph.

In a year where there's already much to look forward to, it feels like 2018 is off to a promising start.

LEAVES OF ABSENCE shortlisted for Geelong acquisitive print award

Leaves of absence, 2017, artist book, archival inkjet prints, cloth cover; ed. 5/10,
32.5 x 25.5 x 4.0 cm (closed) 32.5 x 55.0 x 4 cm (open). Printer: Luke Ingram 

Further to recent posts, my artist book, Leaves of Absence, has just been shortlisted for the prestigious 2017 Geelong acquisitive print awards. 

The acquisitive awards and biennial exhibition will comprise 38 works by 39 established and emerging Australian artists. 

Shortlisted artists are: Benjamin Armstrong, Rosalind Atkins, Elizabeth Banfield, G.W Bot, Laura Castell, Jock Clutterbuck, Marian Crawford, Ben Fennessy, Dianne Fogwell, Peter Garnick, Kaye Green, Sue Grossman, Andrew Gunnell, Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison, Robert Hague, Rew Hanks, Carolyn Hawkins, Clare Humphries, Anita Iacovella, Michael Kempson, Deborah Klein, Jo Langley, Marion Manifold, Megan McPherson, David Nixon, Jiri Tibor Novak, Sharron Okines, Glenda Orr, Janet Parker-Smith, Jim Pavlidis, Stieg Persson, Ben Rak, Brian Robinson, Kati Thamo, Bridgit Thomas, Vanessa Wallace, Halina Wolski and Joel Wolter. 

The Geelong acquisitive print awards will run from 2 August - 8 October. 

Meanwhile, Leaves of Absence can be viewed in Between the sheets: international artists' books 2017 at Australian Galleries Melbourne until 2 July. (See previous two posts).

Leaves of Absence, page view 1

Leaves of Absence, page view 2

FIREBRAND - an artist book in progress

Further to our post of Thursday, 22 December, directly below are further progress views of Firebrand, our latest one-of-a-kind artist book. Click on individual images to enlarge. 

Firebrand, artist book in progress, pencil and pigmented drawing ink
on Khaki paper, 16.5 x 15.5 cm