Artists’ Book Collection
Manly Library has been active for more than half a century and is today the focus of many innovative cultural programs serving our community, including the commencement in 2011 of an Artists' Book collection.
Artists' Book Award 2013
This Manly Library Artists' Book Award 2013 was selected and judged by; Noreen Grahame - Director of the Centre for the Artist Book and Monica Oppen - writer, printmaker, photographer and bookbinder. The selected works were exhibitied at Manly Library from 18 - 28 March 2013.
Manly Library Artist's Book Award acquistions for 2013:
- Danielle Creenaune (NSW) for 'Unsent Letters 1' - digital pigment print and kawasa paper, wood intaglio on somerset satin.
Unsent Letters is an ongoing series of books reflecting day journeys in distinct landscapes and countries. In an epoch where traditional letter writing has become less common, these books exist as visual unsent letters both capturing and reinventing moments in time and place.
- Anne-Maree Hunter (NSW) for 'Suburban Democracy' - cloth covered book, photography, laser prints, obsolete map end papers & hand stamping.
Suburban Democracy asks if democracy is to be found in the streets of our suburbs. Many of Canberra’s suburbs carry the name of an Australian Prime Minister. Each of the Prime Ministers influenced our brand of Democracy. Suburban Democracy name checks all our Prime Ministers in text that is essentially typeset with a photographed alphabet of letters covered with pages from an old street directory.
- Georgia Thorpe (VIC) for 'In Praise of Shadows / Ties that Bind' - altered Japanese ledger book, linen thread, woodcut prints and engravings, kozo and joss paper, indigo dye.
Both ledgers are constructed from one Japanese ledger book found in an inner Melbourne warehouse crammed full of Japanese artifacts. The books are part of a larger series of artists’ books and altered books looking at light and darkness and the exclusions that are created through language. The ancient characters in these ledger books are now unused and are inaccessible to modern Japanese people. Through my alterations, the original content has been re-contextualised and new meaning and interpretations of the script emerge.
- Sandra Winkworth (NSW) for 'Hot Pie Portland' - inkjet print on tracing and butters papers, linen thread, Japanese stab binding.
An assortment of memorable snaps from a summer residency at Julia Street Space in Portland, Victoria.
- Nicci Haynes (ACT) for 'The Articulate Body' - drawing with ink, wax, sewing and photo collage.
"I am not always able to render into written words the confused jumble of inner mutterings and fleeting half formed images of my thoughts. Body language sometimes does more than words".
- Deanna Hitti (VIC) for 'The Country Justice: containing the practice of the justices of the peace out of their - inkjet onto 40gsm stock, hardbound cover, 1020 pages.
“No one has the right to live without being shocked. No one has the right to spend their life without being offended. Nobody has to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. And if you open it and read it, you don't have to like it. And if you read it and you dislike it, you don't have to remain silent about it. You can write to me, you can complain about it, you can write to the publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book. You can do all those things, but there your rights stop. No one has the right to stop me writing this book. No one has the right to stop it being published, or sold, or bought, or read.” Philip Pullman
- Lyn Ashby (VIC) for 'Ideo(t) Grammatica' - archival digital papers, boards.
To demonstrate that a sentence could be grammatically correct but meaningless, Noam Chomsky proposed the sentence ‘Colourless green ideas sleep furiously’. But of what, we might wonder, do they dream? This book traces this language dreaming where normal grammar takes a rest. But what awakens in its place? What idiocy lies that way?
The Collection
The collection began with an Artists' Book Award held at Manly Library, which was opened by Monica Oppen and Peter Lyssiotis. Works added to the Artist's Book collection in 2011 were selected and judged by Akky van Ogtrop - Art Historian and President of the Print Council of Australia and Therese Kenyon, former Director Manly Art Gallery & Museum. The Manly Library Artists' Book Award 2013 were selected and judged by; Noreen Grahame - Director of the Centre for the Artist Book and Monica Oppen - writer, printmaker, photographer and bookbinder. Entries were received from around the world, marking this as a globally recognized event.
An Artist Book Collection in Manly Library Reflects in a challenging and thought provoking way the long tradition of enquiry, curiosity and innovation that books signify when placed in the hands of artists. Artists’ books are naturals for libraries, stressing the creative potential of the book medium and restating the long standing relationship between the book and the library.
This Award has provided Manly Library with the opportunity to develop an artists’ book collection and in so doing also contributes to the development and awareness of artists’ books as an art form.
Each acquired book will be available to be viewed in the library and will be digitally available via the library website for unlimited access supporting programming of many kinds: workshops, lectures, exhibits etc.
Manly Library Artists’ Book Award acquisitions for 2011:
- Deidre Brollo (NSW) for her work ‘Untitled’ – Employing archival pigment prints, the work uses specific historical events and their aftermath to examine relationships of people to place.
- Angela Cavalieri (VIC) for ‘Certe Cosse non si dicono’ - Concertina artist book, hand printed linocut, brush and ink.
- Gwen Harrison and Sue Anderson (NSW) for ‘Someone Somebody Run II’ - Multiplate photocollograph and collagraph intaglio prints. The work investigates the circuitous administration of refugees by Governments in which their decisions result in brutality and injustice to exposed and displaced peoples.
- Clyde McGill (VIC) for ‘Atlas: Strongman’ - A hand stitched chapbook of 24 pages of letterpress, digital images, drawings, stencils and text.
- Lise Melhorn-Boe (North Bay, Ontario, Canada) for ‘Body map’ - Gidée-printed on ink-press fine art matte paper. A look at how environmental chemicals can affect our health.
- Janis Nedela (WA) for ‘Palindrome No. 39 – MA/AM’- The text of a palindrome inscribed in one direction on one, in the reverse direction on the other.
- Alan Purdom (NSW) for ‘Homage to Homage’ - A celebration of the influence of Josef Albers of Bauhaus fame.
- Barbara Schmelzer (NSW) for ‘A Collection of Australian animals’- The book explores the phenomenon that many Australians see their country’s wild animals often only in zoos.
Artists Books Available Online