How I entered here I cannot truly say…*
July 25, 2006Just as Dante ‘wandered off from the straight path’ to explore more exotic realms, the Edition + Artist Book Studio produced books and prints that resulted from a similarly enigmatic route through artistic collaboration. Now, after eight years of solid production, the results are travelling through regional Australia with the help of a touring exhibition grant from the Federal Government’s Visions of Australia program.
A view of the exhibition as installed in Artspace Mackay
Operating from 1996 to 2005, the Edition + Artist Book Studio, co-ordinated by artist/ master-printer Dianne Fogwell, was a studio research space at the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra, devoted to exploring the alchemy of a wide mix of genres and personalities. Beside the more exploratory projects, the Studio also produced selective commercial editions.
The E+ABS was primarily artist-driven. It aimed to give established artists the opportunity to work with each other in a quiet and contemplative space, and to involve less experienced artists in the daily running of the studio. In this way younger artists gained knowledge and the older – in terms of experience here, not years – had assistance and sometimes a fresh viewpoint and access to new technologies. Many of the artists featured in this exhibition had never worked with the book or print form before, and embraced the chance to try something that extended their artistic practice.
Work produced by the Studio over this period involve artists and writers renowned both in Australia and internationally. These publications and prints have been collected by such institutions as the National Library of Australia, the State Library of Queensland and the State Library of New South Wales, as well as by smaller and private collections. E+ABS publications have been represented at the Frankfurt Book Fair (Germany), and the First Seoul International Book Fair (South Korea).
Works of the calibre of the Studio publications are rarely exhibited in regional galleries. This tour is a chance to showcase major artists whose work is not usually associated with books and prints. There are over 30 print folios and over 25 artists’ books, involving major artists, writers, students and staff of the Studio.
A view of the Bathurst installation; the three large works are by Helen Geier
Among the writers and visual artists featured are: Udo Sellbach, Bruno Leti, Helen Geier, Robin Wallace Crabbe, Sally McInerney, Fiona Foley, Rhyll McMaster, Bernard Hardy, Gaye Paterson, Patsy Payne, John Reid, Katharine Nix, Jan Brown, Andrew Powell, Savandhary Vongpoothorn, Margaret Olley, Jason Benjamin, the Maningrida Women’s Centre, Noel Counihan, and John Christie.
By the Bathurst leg of the tour, we had been able to design custom-made perspex book plinths to house the collection of books. The print on the far right is ‘Turkish Pots and Lemons’ by Margaret Olley.
There is a growing interest in the concept of Book as Art in Australia, demonstrated by the rise of critical dialogue on the nature of artist’s books versus book arts, conferences such as Pressing Issues in Bathurst (January 2006), the outstanding number of entries in Book Arts Fairs and exhibitions, and the instigation of an annual Book Arts Forum in Mackay, which doubled in participation numbers from the first to the third forum. It has become increasingly more acceptable to identify oneself solely as a book artist; Noosa Regional Gallery in Qld has an annual book arts exhibition, with entries increasing so fast in recent years that it has now become a curated selective exhibition.
The exhibition ‘How I entered there I cannot truly say’: Collaborative Books and Prints from the ANU E+ABS started touring in early 2004 when it was launched by Professor Sasha Grishin at Artspace Mackay in Queensland. So far it has travelled to Bathurst NSW and Bunbury in WA. Further venues are:
Fountain Gallery, Port Augusta, South Australia, opening 10 October 2006
State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, opening February 2007
Horsham Regional Gallery, Victoria, opening June 2007
At the end of the tour, the collection will go the the ANU Drill Hall Gallery as part of the ANU Art Collection.
The Edition + Artist Book Studio has ceased to operate as a service facility within the ANU School of Art. The space has now become the Book Studio, and has reverted to use as a resource facility for staff, students and the school’s visiting artists.
* Dante, The Divine Comedy Vol 1: The Inferno, 1: 10 (Penguin Classics, 1994, trans. by Mark Musa). Dante was the text for the first volume produced by the E+ABS (Udo Sellbach’s And Still I See It, 1996).
