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Canberra Today 16°/17° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Mad about artists’ books

CANBERRA has long been mad about artistic book production,  and there is a vibrant community of artists here who use the book form to explore and extend their broader practice, whether it be printmaking, sculpture or any other medium. !cid_image004_jpg@01CE36A5

What is more, the genre of artists’ books was formally taught in Canberra since the early 1980s thanks to the establishment of the European-inspired Graphic Investigations Workshop at the Canberra School of Art, which in 1998 became the Printmedia and Drawing Workshop of the ANU School of Art.

Both workshops have released generations of book-aware artists into the Canberra art scene who were then in turn supported by more community-based printing organisations like Studio One, Raft Press and Megalo.

This exhibition, timed to coincide with the Centenary celebrations, features 20 artists with a strong connection to Canberra, showcasing their work in a way that is both snapshot and survey. Each participant has been invited to show “old” work and “recent” work. The pieces on show track the beginning of a professional interest in books for each artist that continues to the present day.

Printmakers, working with ink and paper on a professional level, often extend their output spatially in the form of books, and in “100 per cent” there will be such names as GW Bot, Patsy Payne, Tanya Myshkin, Franki Sparke and Dianne Fogwell, Nicci Haynes, Jan Hogan, Antonia Aitken, Bernie Slater and Ingeborg Hansen.

Mixed-media practitioners such as Shellaine  Godbold, UK Frederick, Genevieve Swifte, Maryann Mussared, Murray Kirkland, Kirsten Farrell and Hanna Hoyne use the book as a conceptual playground, while  street artist byrd, sculptor Nick Stranks, graphic designer Iona Walsh  reveal their relationship with the book form as a integral part of their working lives.

Curated by Ampersand Duck (Caren Florance), a book arts teacher and practitioner, the work will perhaps challenge notions of what a book can be in an art context.

And Zines are no longer on the edge of the arts spectrum, the artists are saying,  they are mainstream, collectible and very reasonably-priced works of art.

“100%”, at Watson Arts Centre, 1 Aspinal Street Watson,  until  April 28, Thursday to Sunday 10am to 4pm. Artists’ talk, 1.30pm Saturday April 20, workshop, 11am – 1pm and 2-4pm Thursday,  April 18.

Zine Fair, noon-4pm Saturday  April 20.

 

 

 

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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