WHY
BOOKS?
We make artists' books collaboratively as a team and have been doing
so since 1999. Place the apostrophe before the 's' or after the 's',
we don’t mind, we just like to make books. Artists' books with
drawings, with elements of collage, hand coloured with pencil or stamped,
even cut out and altered ever so slightly. Every step, every part of
the process, every learning curve, holds us besotted.
We fell into the making of these artists’ books seemingly by accident,
without even realising, much like our collaboration. A turn here, a
turn there, and here we are. From working in various journals, scrap
books, visual diaries and sketch books, and often side-by-side in the
studio, it seemed only natural to continue this further and commence
making a series of limited edition artists’ books.
The medium of the artists' book seemed, to us, to be free of rules and
regulations, of do's and don'ts. It also presented many new things to
consider, from page layout and sequence, various typographical decisions,
which paper stock to use and just how to get the most out of a sheet
of paper when printing a financially costly, small edition. From the
outset we knew next to nothing of the logistics of binding. Could a
love of books as reader and a limited knowledge of the history of artists'
books, coupled with a stint in Switzerland to studying experimental
binding techniques under Daniel E. Kelm,
be enough to guide us along the way?
Through working on this loose series of books in small editions, all
those who have printed them, from Phil Beattie at Hart Printing through
to Bernie Rackham at Redwood Prints, have chuckled at the small size
of our printing run. Yes, along the way we have been fortunate, very
fortunate, to receive assistance and inspiration from bookbinders, offset
printers, opticians, hobby supply shop stockists based in Wantirna (for
the brass wire and rods required in book spines and saddle sections),
Dr. Carlos Lemos at the Portuguese Consulate, and many many others,
not least, our friends and family. Who could have foreseen long ago,
as we spent many a quiet afternoon happily ensconced in the Chess Reading
Room at the State
Library of Victoria, looking at a wonderful collection of rare books
shown to us by Des Cowley, that we would end up with a small army of
artists’ books to our names? Turning the pages of old Atlases
complete with sea monsters and ghouls, each in a pair of white gloves,
to now… it's proving a long and amusing journey.
We plunged in knowing little and are unlikely to ever end our affair
with the artists' book and all the possibilities the medium holds.
Gracia Haby
All were in their place.
2008
collage
featured in Small Collection zine
