Craft / “Reflections of a Philosophical Voyager”. At Village Gallery Sutton, 51 Camp Street, Sutton, until August 20. Reviewed by MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE.

IN  this project, 18 bookbinders from NSW and the ACT are exhibiting bound copies of a famous  letter written by French commander Nicolas Baudin and Governor Philip Gidley King on December 24, 1802.

The brainchild of the NSW Guild of Craft Bookbinders, the project saw  copies of this special edition embellished with a cartoon by the late Bruce Petty which  captures the interaction between Baudin and King, with an indigenous person jammed between them,  a depiction of land-grabbing and letter-writing within a world view.

The letter itself, while pointed, is polite and perhaps the artists have taken their lead from the text, in which Baudin questions the basic principles of colonialism, so the books are generally well-mannered, if a little conservative.

The exhibition displays beauty and gives great insight to the skills of the artists. The binders have variously responded to the text with representations of the land, the ocean, and the rivalry between the French and the English.

Many different bindings are included, and are explained in detail in the catalogue. Several include original watercolours of the coastline.

Chris Johnson, from the ACT, has separated the parts of his volume with different colours: Introduction, English text, French text and cartoon. In a thoughtful nod to the sailing ships, he has used canvas as the main material on the cover.

Ken McKeon, from Queensland, has placed the cartoon front and back, highlighting the three combatants – King, Baudin, and a lone indigenous person – in the colours of the flags.

ACT Embroider Sharon Peoples has decorated her case-bound book with an embroidered image of a bird. The catalogue explains that one of the naturalists in Baudin’s team made a visual record of the sub-species of the King Island emu dwarf – which was extinct a year after Baudin’s visit.

Another Queensland binder, Fred Pohlmann, has included images of the flags of the two countries, which ripple ever so slightly over the cover (printed by Bernard Milford). He has used emu leather and white linen on the boards.

One of the organisers, Joy Tonkin, has engaged the calligrapher Gemma Black to inscribe a section of Baudin’s letter in French and inlaid it on the cover. It is simple but clear.

Bookbinding is a form of craft that is not practised by many people these days. This exhibition gives an interesting overview and perspective, with all binders working with the same text.

The text itself is fascinating for the critique Baudin gives of the behaviour and attitude of the British – which seems apt in the current discussions about the Voice.