Mapping literature and wildlife
Walking the City of Literature map to a Bird’s Eye View
A recent commission (for Melbourne City of Literature)
A forthcoming Panel Discussion (for Melbourne Rare Book Week)
Last year, we had the pleasure of working on the 2024–2025 Walking the City of Literature map, commissioned by, and especially for, the Melbourne City of Literature Office, and now it is a thing in the palm, lovely and inked. The fourth of its kind, it is a double-sided map of bookstores and libraries within the city and further afield, and it is currently available to collect from said bookstores and libraries.
To create this map, piece by piece, we collaged the streets and tramlines, rivers and curved pathways from a palette of collected material. We added in architectural landmarks to anchor, including Old Treasury, and the domes of the Royal Exhibition Buildings and Flinders Street Railway Station, and the gentle curve of the Birrarung on both sides.
Pick up a copy for your very good self and join us in Walking the City of Literature.
A free literary map of Melbourne featuring,
37 bookstores
18 libraries
1 microbat circling Flinders Street Station (a Gould's wattled bat (Chalinolobus gouldi), should you be curious)
A platypus, for measure
2 Grey-headed flying foxes by their Yarra Bend colony
A pair of Striated grasswrens, by the Queen Victoria Market (to hark back to what was)
1 seal known as Salvatore, by the banks of the Birrarung (who we sighted, once)
and a Peregrine falcon, from 367 Collins Street (a pair of Peregrine falcons have been observed in a nest on the rooftop of 367 Collins Street since 1991).
This map is produced by the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature Office and we are delighted they were happy for us to include wildlife references alongside inhabitants and visitors Walking the City of Literature. The two need not, and are not, mutually exclusive.
To lorikeets and bookworms! And, of course, Grey-headed flying foxes!
(Incidentally, this Grey-headed flying fox pup season (2023–2024), we looked after 54 Grey-headed flying foxes (both orphaned pups and adults recovering from entanglement injuries), so we thought it was about time we created a dedicated page on our site to all things Tiny but Wild.)
Of falcons and the like, we’re looking forward to talking about birds on the page and in the heart at Melbourne Museum as part of Melbourne Rare Book Week in July.
If you are free, reserve a spot. We’d love to see you there.
Bird’s Eye View: Perspectives on the Art and Science of Ornithology
Presented as part of Melbourne Rare Book Week
A scientist, a historian and two artists chatter about birds in art and science including the history of museum science, rare ornithology books and taxonomy, and museum collections as artistic inspiration.
Free (booking essential)
Book a ticket
Sunday 20th of July
1.30–2.30pm
Museum Theatre
Panellists
Dr Karen Rowe
CURATOR OF BIRDS, MUSEUMS VICTORIA
Dr. Karen Rowe is the Curator of Birds at the Museums Victoria Research Institute. She is a museum-based research ecologist specialising in using acoustic methods to document the diversity and distribution of animals, particularly birds, across landscapes. This work has included long-term monitoring of endangered species and addressing the impact of bushfires on bird communities. Her work actively focuses on using acoustic technologies to bring together land managers, landcare groups and community participants towards improved management and conservation outcomes for wildlife.
Rebecca Carland
SENIOR CURATOR, HISTORY OF COLLECTIONS & SCIENTIFIC ART, MUSEUMS VICTORIA
Bec is a dynamic history curator with 18 years experience in collections, exhibitions, programs and publication within the museum sector. She collaborates across history, science and creative networks to keep historical practice energised and relevant. She strives to engage with and address the colonial legacy within museum practice and methodology. She is an advocate for the promotion of women in the sector through mentoring in the workplace and is energised by executive positions on various committees and boards.
Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
ARTISTS
Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison have been collaborating since 1999, making artists’ books, zines, collages, stories, prints, and drawings. Besotted still, it appears, with paper for its adaptable, foldable, cut-able, concealable, revealing nature, using an armoury of play, the poetic and familiar too, with the intention of luring you into their A(rtists’ books) to Z(ines). Their most recent commission was by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) for Melbourne Now for which they created a pocket of restored eucalyptus forest habitat especially for the Grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus), collaged from 100 pieces in the NGV collection.
Moderator
John Kean
John Kean was Art Advisor at Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, (1977–79) inaugural Exhibition Coordinator at Tandanya: the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute (1989–92) Exhibition Coordinator at Fremantle Arts Centre (1993-96) Producer with Museum Victoria (1996–2010). John was the Thomas Ramsay Science and Humanities Fellow 2004, Museum Victoria and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (Art History) at University of Melbourne in 2020. John Kean has published extensively on First Nations art and the representation of nature in Australian museums. His publications include: The art of science: remarkable natural history illustrations from Museum Victoria, 2013 and Dot Circle and Frame: the making of Papunya Tula art, 2023.
Partner
Melbourne Rare Book Week
And if neither the CBD nor the Melbourne Museum is near your pocket of the world, you might like to consider winging your way to B for Book, an exhibition in Bedminster, Bristol, UK, which includes our artists’ book set, A Hemline of Sky, Forest, and Water through Smoke, and an edition of our zine, I think all the world is falling.
Curated by Frankenstein Press and Sarah Bodman, who lent a portion of her artists’ books archive at the Centre for Print Research, UWE Bristol, the exhibition focuses on “the significant role of books in shaping culture and personal growth through storytelling. Books serve as timeless conduits for narratives, knowledge, and enlightenment, bridging past, present, and future. Unlike digital media, books are tangible artefacts, held, shared, and cherished over time, preserving a wealth of information. They ignite imagination, nurture creativity, and facilitate idea-sharing, often transcending mere functionality to become cherished objects of beauty.”
Image credit: Walking the City of Literature, 2024–2025
