Locating a Textile wren (Amytis textilis) within volumes
World of the Book
Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
With wings outstretched and quivering
18 page concertina artists’ book, inkjet print on Canson Arches 88 310gsm, with accompanying narrative (by Gracia Haby), housed in a box (by Louise Jennison) with original watercolour cover on Saunders Waterford Aquarelle 300gsm white hot-press paper
Printed by Arten
Edition of 2
and
Something reverberated
18 page concertina artists’ book, inkjet print on Canson Arches 88 310gsm, with accompanying narrative (by Gracia Haby), housed in a box (by Louise Jennison) with original watercolour cover on Saunders Waterford Aquarelle 300gsm white hot-press paper
Printed by Arten
Edition of 2
To our great delight, both With Wings Outstretched and Quivering, and its hand-painted box, and Something Reverberated, and its box, shown alongside a related zine of the same title, are currently on display alongside some of the exquisitely beautiful source material, as part of the Contemporary Victorian Artists display, Inspired by the Collection, as part of World of the Book at State Library Victoria.
Do head upstairs, next time you are there, to commune with Broinowski’s lyrebird and gape at Bauer’s botanical specimens.
World of the Book
Dome Galleries, Level 4, The Dome
State Library Victoria
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne
All artists are in dialogue with art’s history, and its present. The library’s rich book collection has long been a source of inspiration for artists working in many media.
This display highlights the special resonance of our natural history collection for select Victorian artists whose work is concerned with the form of the book. The resulting artworks and artists’ books have in turn been added to the state collection.
Shown alongside the historical works that have inspired them, these contemporary artworks also celebrate the power of art as activism at a time when the fragility of our natural world has never been more evident.
The artists and natural history section of World of the Book features:John Cotton's original sketchbooks of birds from the Port Phillip District (known as Victoria after its separation from the Colony of New South Wales in 1851).
A monumental work by Martin King, Tree of Life, Diary of Lost Souls in Twenty Volumes, created for the City of Melbourne's CLIMARTE exhibition that draws directly from John Cotton's sketchbooks and the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens.
A response to the natural history collection by contemporary Victorian artists' book creators Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison, with their inspirational fusion of words, collages, drawings and prints.
“Gracia and Louise have been creating art together since 1999. The fusion of their words, collages, drawings and prints has forged a unique aesthetic. Their work as wildlife foster carers and environmental activists guides their art practice as well as their daily lives. It imbues their artists’ books with authenticity and integrity.”
Earlier in the year, you may recall, we had the opportunity to see the beautiful source material, which frond by wing we have woven into our artists’ books.
Seeing these jewel-like, original works spring and quiver with our own eyes was a particular pleasure, having previously worked with the back-lit digital files at home. There, on the one table, meeting for the first time, it was a rare thrill to see Silvester Diggles’s powder soft Superb lyrebird (Menura superba) from Ornithology of Australia alongside our artists’ book Something reverberated. To peer closely at the sprig of — so appealing! so luminous! you can almost nibble them! — Grevillea banksii, from the Illustrated botanical works by Ferdinandi Bauer within Novae Hollandiae. To locate engraved boughs by James Sowerby of Eucalyptus robusta and Styphelia tubiflora, both of which grow in With wings outstretched and quivering. Time spent deducing which Lyrebird is that, the Diggles, the Broinowski, the Gould? is time always well spent.
We hope you enjoy seeing the printed inspiration and our conversation with it, side by side, in the library.
“More fun with the collection today @library_vic as @gracialouise helped me curate a display of their beautiful books Something reverberated (RARELTEF 702.81 J44S (2021)) and … With wings outstretched and quivering (RARELTEF 702.81 J44W (2021). Gracia and Louise’s work combines art and activism, championing the fragility and significance of our natural environment and its inhabitants, and our responsibilities to them. This book drew on … Ferdinand Bauer’s Novae Hollandiae, 1813, (RARELTEF 581.994 B32) and John Edward Smith and James Sowerby’s A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland, 1793, (RARELTF 581.994 SM6), along with many other sources.”
— @bibliovita
Birds on the page, from the pink-boxed Satin bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) to the green-boxed Spotted pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus) above, and birds of the trees, in particular, a recent Wildlife Victoria rescue of a beautiful Eastern barn owl (Tyto alba delicatula) near to the Flemington Racetrack, have been on our mind of late, ahead of Bird’s Eye View.
Should you be free, consider reserving yourself a spot for Bird’s Eye View. 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
Saturday 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
Image credit: John Cotton (1801–1849), White-shafted fantail (Rhipidura flabellifera), Sketchbook belonging to John Cotton, with sketches and descriptions of birds of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, 1844–1849, State Library Victoria
