CAM Art Book Fair 2023

As part of the 2023 Melbourne Art Book Fair, Castlemaine Art Museum (CAM) presents a two-day regional art book fair

Castlemaine Art Museum
14 Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine
Sunday 28th May, 2023
11am–3pm

In near repeat of the previous tale, this time last week, we were back once more for the CAM Art Book Fair, which, like the Melbourne Art Book Fair, from which it springs, was held in the second month beginning with M, May. This time around, we had the company of David Rosetzky’s Air to Atmosphere on the gallery walls. This time around, we had copies of our artists’ book, The remaking of things, and three new zines, Recall, Hold, and Brilliant Gathering, to show, tell, and sell.

In what proved a test of memory, on Sunday we recounted to those who passed our table the birds within a Brilliant Gathering, from the familiar Regent Honeyeater and a pair of Diamond Firetails to the Scarlet Robin mid-call on the cover. The snails by Anselmus Boëtius de Boodt from the album Fish, Shells and Insects, 1596–1610, and an engraving of a skeleton in repose by Hendrick Hondius, after Teodoro Filippo di Liagno, from 1642, in Hold, proved harder to recall. We pointed out the NASA Washington, D.C. Lunar crater, 1969, near the foyer doorway we have fashioned into a tree hollow, and the upturned early 20th century glass Snuff bottle from China we have repurposed as a pollen-laden blossom within The remaking of things.

For the curious, other than the new titles, it was Limbed (from 2017!) with its 32 Salvaged Relatives which proved most popular, and made me long to create more analogue collages. Perhaps they’ll take their shape from the many boxes of stored collage material I have yet to use, and I’ll use the restriction of source material as a means to make something new or pass it on; in something of a public note to self: I cannot hold onto this material forever.

For those of you who couldn’t make it to either of the weekend fairs, editions of our artists’ books and zines can always be found listed in our online store.

The remaking of things
Edition of 100
$80AUD

Recall
Edition of 75
$7AUD

Hold
Edition of 75
$7AUD

Brilliant Gathering
Edition of 75
$7AUD

Annual fairs now done, thank-you to everyone who came along to the CAM Art Book Fair, and to @castlemaineartmuseum for hosting the event. Thank-you to all the brilliant and clever stall holders; a pleasure to table alongside you for the day, @catherinepilgrim, @richard.holt_, @agave_print_studio, @lorenacarrington, @caitlin__mcgregor, @a.friend.of.dorothy, and @the.femxle.experience. And thank-you to the bright rosellas sighted on the winding road homeward. The cockatoos too. Thank-you to the Brushtail possums, Myrtle and Poppy, and the Ringtails, Kitri, Norbert, Norris, and Dante, who all waited patiently for sprays of flowering gum from many different trees, and plumbago sourced closer to home. This, as well, is a part of the book fair pattern: the collecting of browse.

Thanks also to Molly May for inviting us, and Lottie too, upon special request, to talk all things wildlife foster care, Bat Rescue Bayside, and our NGV collage commission, The remaking of things, for the Grey-headed flying fox in gallery and book form on The After Show (after Molly’s Blooming Hour ) on local radio, 88.3 Southern FM.

You can listen to our chat with Molly on her podcast here.

Thanks, too, Carmel Killin, for your Day of the Species project of which our Alpine bog skink (Pseudemoia cryodroma) is now a part of the chain. For the @dayofthespecies project, in which participants can draw one or more endangered species on a 7cm X 3cm piece of recycled paper, we selected the Alpine bog skink. Habitat degradation, invasive species, habitat loss, fire frequency and severity, and climate change, have lead to the Alpine bog skink being on the endangered species list. Populations of this species of lizard endemic to Victoria now only exist in sky islands.

The project aims to have a drawing of one of every single species on Australia’s Threatened Species list. You may wish to contribute a tiny drawing.

So, if that was last Sunday, how about this Sunday. This Sunday, Myrtle and Poppy went to their soft-release site in Cockatoo, where they will slowly get to know their new environment from the safety of a predator- and weather-proof enclosure, thanks to South Oakley Wildlife Shelter.

Myrtle came into care on the 5th of December, 2022, weighing 340g, and Poppy came into care on the 28th of January, 2023, weighing 731g. After spending the remainder of summer through to the start of winter, together in our outdoor enclosure, they have now moved to the next stage of their journey to being wild once more. After a detour on the way to soft-release two adult ringtail possums (on a second property), and encounter several wallabies in care, Myrtle and Poppy are more than ready for the new skills they will acquire. We already miss their sweet ways and pink noses, their plumbago tugs, but we are so happy they have made it to this stage. Bidding them farewell was made all the easier knowing that they are in safe hands on a property we soft-released Clover and Atlas from in May of last year.

May Myrtle and Poppy, and Atlas and Clover and all their plush descendants thrive.

Image credit: Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Hold (detail), 2023