World of the Book 2023

Four pages from Leaves of Absence, our unbound artist book, have been included in the extraordinary new World of the Book exhibition in the Dome Galleries, Level 4, State Library of Victoria. 

World of the Book 2023 opened on 1 April 2023 and is current to 12 May 2024.

Pictured top: Memory 1, 16, 14 and 9 from Leaves of Absence, 2017, unbound artist book. Collection: State Library of Victoria. Click on images to enlarge. 

SELF-MADE at Latrobe Regional Gallery

The Moth Woman Vigilantes, 2011, zine, edition of 80. Collection:
State Library of Victoria. Photo credit: Paul Compton.

Pictured above: our limited edition zine, The Moth Woman Vigilantes, spotted by Paul Compton at Latrobe Regional Gallery in SELF-MADE: ZINES AND ARTIST BOOKS, a touring exhibition from the State Library of Victoria.

The exhibition is ‘... presented by State Library Victoria in partnership with Sticky Institute, and supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and the Visions regional touring program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to cultural material for all Australians’. 
- From the Latrobe Regional Gallery website.

SELF MADE opened on 10 August and runs to 10 November 2019
https://latroberegionalgallery.com/project/7223/

SELF-MADE floor talk at the State Library of Victoria

For some weeks it has been all go at Moth Woman Press as we simultaneously prepare for an artist book launch and a sizeable solo show that are only five days apart. (Full details of both events will be provided soon).

So it was a welcome treat take some time out on Thursday November 9 to attend a Print Council of Australia Special Event: a Curator's floor talk on the exhibition, Self-made: zines and artist books at State Library of Victoria. 

Self-made curator Monica Syrette (far right) speaks about the
history of zines and artist books to a captivated audience.
 In the centre are Andrew Stephens, Editor of the PCA
journal, IMPRINT, and Sharon Okines, PCA Membership Manager.

Two Moth Woman Press zines, The Moth Woman Vigilantes and Tattooed Faces, are included in the show - although the first time I visited some months back, the latter zine was nowhere to be found. Shortly afterwards, Monica Syrette, guest curator of Self-made, informed me that it had been stolen. At a RRP of $4.00, this was hardly a top end of the market art heist, but a compliment of sorts, I guess! Monica subsequently acquired a replacement copy at the Tonerpalooza Zine Fair (see previous post) and it has remained ensconced in the reading racks ever since. That's it on the top shelf, far right, in the photo below.

The exhibition finishes its run tomorrow, Sunday November 12, but will soon begin an extensive tour. 

TONERPALOOZA II ZINE FAIR

The Moth Woman Press stall at TONERPALOOZA II. Photo credit: Shane Jones

It was terrific seeing so many familiar faces among visitors and stall holders alike on day two of the splendid TONERPALOOZA II zine fair, which ran over the past weekend (see previous two posts and Blog Post September 8). We met some lovely people and, thanks to our hosts with the mostest, Sticky Institute and the State Library of Victoria, it all ran like clockwork and we had a ball. Thanks also to Shane Jones for invaluable zine stall assistance.

L - R: Miranda Costa and myself. Photo credit: Shane Jones

Photo credit: Shane Jones

My able assistant, Shane Jones, with TONERPALOOZA II participant, Miranda Costa

Fellow zinesters Gracia and Louise (left) and Miranda Costa (fair right)

Shane Jones

Having Shane to cover for me meant I could periodically stretch my legs, as well as check out the other zine stalls - and very fine they were.

Food is forbidden in the library (quite rightly) so I ate my packed lunch outside the library entrance in the company of a pigeon and a duck which had clearly lost its way (see directly below).

Pictured below and immediately following: Sticky Institute's stall.

Centre: Sticky Institute coordinator, Luke Sinclair

A gentle reminder, gentle reader

Before I pack them away in readiness for tomorrow's stint at TONERPALOOZA II ZINE FAIR, here is an inside view of each of the three mini-zines I'll be unveiling on day two of this auspicious event. (Click on image to enlarge).

As mentioned in our previous post, Her own Society, Alabaster Chambers and Who are You? take partial inspiration from the poetry of Emily Dickinson and they each include one of her poems. The zines are signed and numbered limited editions of 100.

Co-hosted by Sticky Institute and the State Library of Victoria, TONERPALOOZA II, which showcases zines from over 100 stall holders evenly divided between the two days, is situated in the Cowen Gallery, State Library of Victoria and will run from Saturday 23 - Sunday 24 September between 10 am - 4 pm.

I'll be there tomorrow with a plethora of Moth Woman Press publications old and new and hope to see you there too.

Three zines for TONERPALOOZA II

Previewed below are a trio of mini-zines I'll be launching this coming Sunday at TONERPALOOZA II ZINE FAIR at the State Library of Victoria. (See also Blog Post, Friday, September 8).

Curated by Sticky Institute to correspond with the current show, SELF-MADE: ZINES AND ARTIST BOOKS, the event will be held in the Cowen Gallery, State Library of Victoria, on Saturday 23 - Sunday 24 September from 10 am - 4 pm. We'll be there with our brand new zines - and a goodly selection of earlier Moth Woman Press zines besides - on Sunday 24th.

Pictured from top: Her own Society, Who are You? and Alabaster Chambers. Inspired in part by the poetry of Emily Dickinson, each zine incorporates one of her poems. To see inside, come along to the zine fair on Sunday. 

For the benefit of those who can't make it, I'll be posting some inside views in the very near future.

All three zines are signed, numbered and limited to an edition of 100. 

TONERPALOOZA ll ZINE FAIR

Poster by Rachel Ang

Moth Woman Press is delighted to have been invited to participate in the forthcoming Tonerpalooza II Zine Fair at the Cowen Gallery in the State Library of Victoria. The event will take place on Saturday 23 - Sunday 24 September from 10 - 4 pm. Moth Woman Press will be there on Sunday the 24th.

Tonerpalooza is coordinated by Sticky Institute to coincide with the current exhibition at the State Library of Victoria: SELF-MADE: ZINES AND ARTIST BOOKS (see previous post).

To mark the occasion, I decided to make a new mini-zine, the front cover of which is reproduced below. I've been enjoying the process so much that two other zines are also under way. The drawings I made during a recent residency at the Art Vault in Mildura are the basis for the illustrations in all three. Further details will be revealed in future posts.

SELF-MADE: ZINES AND ARTIST BOOKS

Pictured above and below: the reading room section of SELF-MADE: ZINES AND ARTIST BOOKS at the State Library Victoria. Among the zines on display is the Moth Woman Press publication, Moth Woman Vigilantes (2011).

The exhibition, which runs until 12 November, will travel to a number of regional and interstate galleries in 2018 and 2019. 

Curated by Monica Syrette and developed in partnership with Sticky Institute, SELF-MADE  displays rarely seen material from the Library’s extensive collection of artist books and zines, the largest in Australia.

SELF-MADE: ZINES AND ARTIST BOOKS

Dashing around central Melbourne in between Melbourne International Film Festival venues, I happened upon this poster (x2) for SELF-MADE: ZINES AND ARTIST BOOKS, a free exhibition at the State Library of Victoria. It opened yesterday, 11 August, and runs until 12 November. Two Moth Woman Press zines, Tattooed Faces and Moth Woman Vigilantes, are part of the show, which was curated by Monica Syrette. I haven't had a chance to see it yet because of back-to-back MIFF movies (I'm seeing 55 films over 16 days - I just did a count) but look forward to dropping by next week on a day of less solidly booked screenings. 

A link to the exhibition and related events is HERE.

A time capsule

Recently my illustrations for Nadia Wheatley’s children’s book The Greatest Treasure of Charlemagne the King (Scholastic Australia, 1996) joined the permanent collection of the State Library of Victoria. (See Blog Post Sunday, February 21, 2016).
 

The Charlemagne archive

Not long after the drawings had departed for the SLV, I recalled two A3 sized portfolios, the existence of which I’d almost forgotten, containing ‘roughs’ for the finished drawings and other material related to the project. Fortunately, I was able to lay my hands on the portfolios fairly quickly. It had been many years since I’d viewed their contents; the experience was akin to opening a time capsule.

Working drawings, draft 13 of the story, and snapshots of the illustrations

Aside from the working drawings that were the basis for my oil pastel illustrations, there a were a number of pencil drawings that had also been submitted, but which, for various reasons, had been rejected.

In the same portfolio as these was draft #13 of the story - an earlier, wordier version. I seem to remember that Nadia deemed this draft a little too long for a picture book.

Left: proof of front cover; right: Korean language edition of Charlemagne

Several pages had yellow post-it notes attached. I have absolutely no memory of writing these notes, but have since figured out why I wrote them. As I mentioned in the blog post referred to above, shortly after the book’s publication, the illustrations were exhibited at the Literature Centre in Fremantle, and these annotations were very likely for the information of their young audience. After all these years, the notes read like fragments from a diary and unlocked some very happy memories.

By far the greatest treasure I retrieved was a delightful vignette written in Nadia’s own hand, intended to be incorporated into an illustration as a story that Alcuin the librarian reads to King Charlemagne. Nadia called it the Menagerie Page:

Charlemagne the King is so rich that he has his very own zoo, with animals from the four corners of his empire.

There are bears and badgers, snakes and seals, monkeys and mice and wolves and werewolves, eels and elephants, donkeys and deer, and even a rare spotted dodo. But of all the creatures in all the world, Charlemagne’s favourite is his fat white pussy cat.

As the post-it note attached to it explains:

One day Nadia came to my house to see the latest artwork for ‘Charlemagne’. We needed some text for the ‘book within a book’ on page 17. Nadia went up to my studio, shut herself in, and within 10 minutes had written this. I really treasure this page, because of course the fat white pussy cat is my cat Diva. Unfortunately, in the illustration, Alcuin’s head obscures most of the words!

Nadia knew full well how attached my partner Shane and I were to our two cats, Dorothy Parker and Diva. She and editor Robin Morrow even encouraged my idea to include them in several of the illustrations. As the note says, it was a shame that Alcuin the librarian’s head blocks off most of the text.

Last Monday afternoon I delivered the archive to Susan Long, Librarian, Collection Development and Discovery at the State Library of Victoria. I must admit it was rather hard to part company with the Menagerie Page, despite it having gone to such a fine new home.

The 'Menagerie page', my 'post-it note' and a photo of
 Nadia (RHS) and I with our Charlemagne teddy bears

The Greatest Treasure of Charlemagne the King was launched at Westmead Children’s Hospital in Sydney. The hospital presented Nadia and I with teddy bears dressed as King Charlemagne. (The bear who appears in the book is in fact based on Boodie, my childhood bear). From memory, the photograph reproduced above was taken by Nadia’s partner, Ken Searle.

(Click on above images to enlarge).

'Charlemagne the King' illustrations for the State Library of Victoria

In 1996 I was commissioned to illustrate the children's picture book The Greatest Treasure of Charlemagne the King by Nadia Wheatley, which was published by Scholastic Australia in 1997. It received a Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book Award and from memory, my illustrations were also nominated for a CBCA award. Following the book's publication, the drawings were exhibited at the Literature Centre in Fremantle, WA. Since then, aside from a drawing I gifted to Nadia and another to the book's editor, Robin Morrow, the illustrations have languished in a plan cabin drawer at our Melbourne place. They'll soon be liberated to become part of the permanent collection of the State Library of Victoria. 

Pictured top is the original cover art and directly below, as it appears on the front and back covers of the book. Click on images to enlarge.

Zines for the State Library of Victoria

What do you the day after the Festival of the Photocopier zine fair when you're all tuckered and zined-out (but in a good way)? Why, make up more zines, of course. These mini-zines, Homo-insecta and its sequel, Homo-insecta 2, are two of several Moth Woman Press publications destined for the permanent collection of the State Library of Victoria.

Pictured below is another mini-zine for the State Library of Victoria: Mae West - Moth Woman Vigilante (2013). This one was something of an experiment; it was made primarily with iPad apps Strip Design and Half-Tone 2. The garish primary colours, halftone dots, faux creases and price (the zine is actually $4) imitate a vintage comic book imitating a 1930s women's magazine. 

I've always loved Mae West, a sassy, larger than life, multi-gifted actor/writer/performer decades ahead of her time. No stranger to controversy herself, she is an entirely worthy Honorary Member of the infamous Moth Women Vigilantes.