NGV Melbourne Art Book Fair

Great Hall, NGV International
180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Thursday 23rd May – Sunday 26th May, 2023

And presented as part of the 2024 Melbourne Art Book Fair and Melbourne Design Week, Castlemaine Art Museum presents CAM Art Book Fair, a two-day regional Art Book Fair

Castlemaine Art Museum
14 Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine
Sunday 2nd June, 2024

A familiar summation of what was, these past two weekends, before they fade as things keep ever rolling onward, onward, faster than we can unpack our boxes of stock and rest our pins. The tenth NGV Melbourne Art Book Fair has chimed to a bright note close, and its regional extension, the CAM Art Book Fair too, but not before we arrange a grid of highlights, quickly captured.

(And that makes ten! Our stall, for each one of those years at the fair, including 2021’s live binding of Dip and bob.)

Can you spot yourself in the Great Hall, gliding from stall to stall?

As befits a tenth anniversary, we set up our stall in three quick trips back and forth (with thanks the trusty IKEA trolley our neighbours once left behind, and which we’ve employed every book fair since). Through the mouse hole, once more, but this time with copies of Bilateral Symmetry, and Looking for green, remaining hopeful.

It remains ever a hoot, releasing our artists’ books and zines into the wild, and seeing them flutter and scamper in the Great Hall. We love reading your faces as you pick up an edition. We love talking about the beetles and the snails within.

(You can always find copies of most of our artists’ books, prints, and zines in our online store. And while you are there, you may also notice another something new; Tiny but Wild, our wildlife shelter, now has official new digs too.)

Looking here, perhaps you are curious as to what is beneath the perspex stand at our stall in the Great Hall.

Be curious no more, it is an edition of Restoring corridors, which when extended is 3 metres in length. Each 50cm X 50cm square leaf features a rich, biodiverse habitat, on one side, and a fractured habitat, on the reverse side. Can you spot Gould’s Burrowing bettong and Short-tailed wallaby, and Stephania hernandiaefolia and other specimens from Johnston Lewin’s Botanical sketches of Australian plants?

Another full, beaut NGV Melbourne Art Book Fair may be over, but not before we sing, it was lovely to catch up with so many dear familiar faces, and to meet some new faces too. Thank-you so very much.

We were down the same end as last year, but one jump along, and in the lovely company and clever talent of @apublishedevent, @therestofus___, @ornate.gesture, @kylie_watson_printmaking, @marian_l_crawford, @melbphotobookcollective, and @baldessinstudio.

Thank-you to everyone who swung by our stall to say hello, talk about possums and flying foxes, zines and the collage process, and purchase a copy of Bilateral Symmetry with its katydids and damselflies.

It was beautiful to see you @morgannamagee, @mcdrawn, @kimburrell8, @bat_rescue_bayside, @prettyshake, @sherihaby & Anne, Susan, @gwennsm & Tim, @richard.holt_, @ashleyronning, @rapharding, @christinemdoyle47 & Rosie, @judy_holding, @susanmillard2019 and Des, @seanlynch71, @0francypants, @hughesbronwyn, @olivia.meehan_, @conceptlib, and so many more.

It was a true delight to meet up with Chocolate’s forever-home family, to hear that she is doing so well, and her coat is long and lush (Chocolate was the seventh RSPCA foster cat we cared for, way back at the beginning of 2020. She had severe chemical burns from the back of her neck to the base of her tail. Her injuries were so severe it took multiple surgeries and a leg amputation for Chocolate to be saved. You may recall following her journey during lockdown.).

Thank-you to our fellow stall holders who made the days whizz by with mirth; though we were tired the next morning, we can’t wait to do it all again with you next year. Thank-you @negativepress for the quick-find, one-trip-only industrial trolley.

Thank-you @__lifewithbooks books for another splendid-giddy fair. May we see you for the eleventh, @ngvmelbourne!

Thank-you, dear all!

Sadly, Louise tested covid positive (for the first time!) after the NGV Melbourne Art Book Fair, and could not take part in yesterday’s CAM Art Book Fair. As I continue to test negative for covid, and we’re both isolating, I hopped on the 7.39am train destined for Castlemaine with my parents and a single box of stock, and a roll of brown paper for the base, between us.

Our third time at CAM (CAM Art Book Fair 2023, CAM Art Book Fair 2022), we’re hopeful that ’25, should it be on the cards, will not be a one-person-band.