Article by BOOKS.07 presenter and internationally-exhibited artist, Deirdre Brollo:
Noosa Regional Gallery’s annual artist’s book programme has grown into a widely anticipated event.
The open-entry exhibition attracts a large and varied array of works each year, while the audience for the Interaction symposium has continued to grow, and also to diversify, attracting skilled practitioners as well as enthusiastic beginners, curators as well as collectors and librarians.
Indeed, the field of artists’ books itself has swelled considerably in Australia in recent years
It is easy to forget how rapidly this transition has occurred. When NRG held its inaugural programme in 1996, the artist’s book was a little understood and greatly underappreciated thing. With the exception of a number of far-sighted individuals, such as Gary Catalano and Noreen Grahame who championed the medium, there was scant interest in and even less knowledge of this form in the broader art community. This is not to suggest that artists’ books were not being made – they were, and had been in varying forms for many years – rather, they somehow existed outside the field of vision, out on the periphery of art practice. In such a context, Noosa Regional Gallery became a focal point for practitioners, a place where artists working in isolation in this medium could forge a disparate community.
To be fair however, the artist’s book has always been a thing to inspire difficulty. Often described as hybrid or ‘impossible’ objects, artists’ books straddle multiple genres simultaneously, and represent a desire for more possibilities for the book form. It is this capricious nature which has influenced the theme for NRG’s event this year: The Search for the Impossible. In keeping with Michael Glasmeier's idea that artists' books might form an ‘impossible library,’ this theme resonates with the nature, both physical and conceptual, of the artist’s book itself, while also encompassing the ways in which the artist's book has responded to mythical, utopian, or impossible ideas and events.
The annual open-entry show, which asks artists to respond to this theme, is complemented this year by the touring exhibition Arcadia id est. Arcadia of course represents a mythical, idealised place, often associated with a pre-lapsarian past, and therefore an ‘impossible’ place. Curated by Sarah Bodman, Research Fellow at the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of Western England, Bristol, the exhibition has toured within England, and travelled further afield, to Finland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, USA and Australia. Arcadia id est looks at how artists have responded to the natural world using the book form, and consists of over one hundred artists’ books, including the work of Helen Douglas, Hamish Fulton and Ian Hamilton Finlay.
Along with these exhibitions, Book.07 also features the two-day Interaction symposium. Interaction provides an opportunity to further explore ideas of the artist’s book, with practitioners from around the country presenting artist’s talks, including Milan Milojevic whose recent work utilises hybridity in technique and in imagery. Using digital and woodblock printing in combination, he creates images of impossible birds and beasts which speak of the hybrid nature of the migrant condition. Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison produce collaborative artists’ books in which places appear as they exist in memory, and extinct animals return to roam the pages. Interaction also reflects a diversity of approaches this year, with a talk by Carolyn Fraser, whose recent collaborative book The Extinguishing of Stars features letterpress and photogravure, and Anna Poletti, who will discuss zine production and culture. The professional possibilities and difficulties which are inherent to artists’ books will be examined in a panel discussion, while another forum, featuring Anne-Maree Hunter along with the artists selected through the 1st Edition programme, will explore educational opportunities
The strong emphasis on practice, evident in the symposium, continues in the series of workshop that are also part of BOOKS.07. The workshop programme, which spans letterpress and relief printing to binding and editioning techniques, features Interaction speakers Carolyn Fraser, Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison, along with artists Julia Silvester and Belinda Fox. Offering a variety of approaches, techniques and ideas, BOOKS.07 promises to offer fresh perspectives for everyone interested in the field of artists’ books.
Deidre Brollo