Archive for the ‘Artists Books’ Category
GETTING the BLURB on PHOTOBOOKS
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Daniel Milnor is Blurb’s Photographer-at-large and inspirational bookmaker. Last week we attended presentation by Daniel at the Edge (SLQ) in Brisbane. Attended by an audience of around 80 the presentation, of three hours duration, told the story of how to make photobooks. Not just a bunch of photos in a catalogue or folio form but something that told a story – expressing a narrative.
Milnor is the consummate presenter and storyteller – adding to each technical concept and thing to consider in book-making his own personal story. And there were some amazing insights into Daniel’s career as a photodocumentary photographer of exotic places like South America and Sicily, but also of his own life. In one book he discussed, which was made entirely in his own home, he showed a picture of his shower curtain!!
Milnor’s shower curtain
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In the presentation Milnor provided a step-by-step approach to the making of a book:
Step 1 Make/locate a body of work
Step 2 Give yourself time to edit
Step 3 Time to sequence
Step 4 Start the book using an online POD service – Like Blurb.
Step 5 Get the book
And – not really covered specifically although constantly part of his refinement of book ideas: Step 6 – Review it and re-do it better!!!
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His little phrases and comments that stuck in my memory (or notepad include):
Photobooks that are driven by the photographer –“don’t make any money” unless you have a big-name and are chosen by Steidl. However “subject driven books” can be successful
“Leopard lighting” portraits made under a tree – dappled light
Unless you “Think about your work, write about your work, talk about your work and show your work – You are never going to have a connection with your work!”
“Book builder”
Landscape “rocks and twig” photography
“The narrative arc”
“The perfect solution is YOUR solution”
“Don’t be afraid to play around…”
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What interested me was the excitement he expressed for his own books – their concepts and development. Towards the end of the presentation he showed examples of books created as collaborations with artists, books that were ‘added-to’ by creative intervention whereby the outcome became a unique state work of art. A seminal book for him in his challenge to the ‘normal’ photobook is the book On Approach which has won much acclaim for him. He commented that a curator he had met casually had described him as a ‘conceptual artist’ he seemed excited by the title and that his work, as art, could enter another space – the gallery.
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See Daniel Milnor’s book On Approach @ Blurb
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In the second last question of the day I asked him about the idea of the artists’ book and how artists can inform, as he had found, a new direction for photobooks – in his answer he spoke at length about the proposition — I think he agreed…
Thank you Daniel Milnor, and thank you Blurb for bringing some discussion on photobooks into this country. And the opportunity to engage with so many Australian photographers wanting to tell photo stories using the emancipating opportunities of print-on-demand indie publishing.
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Doug Spowart
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LINKS TO DANIEL MILNOR:
His Website: http://www.smogranch.com/
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Attendees looking a Blurb sample books
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Daniel Milnor talking with an attendee during the break
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All photographs © Doug Spowart 2013.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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2013 LIBRIS AWARDS: THE JUDGE’S VIEW
As a departure from our usual format of WOT WE DID, we invited a Guest Blogger – eminently qualified Helen Cole, to comment on an event that we were unable to attend. Helen was the judge for the 2013 Libris Artists Book Awards and in this post she talks about WOT SHE DID, and provides insights into the awards and selects artists books to add to her commentary:
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Artspace Mackay Libris Artists Book awards… some thoughts
2013 Libris Awards installation ………Photo: Helen Cole
2013 Libris Awards installation ………Photo: Helen Cole
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The Libris exhibition, as always, looks fantastic in the Artspace gallery. The works are very varied, from codexes, scrolls, altered books, and boxes to woven and sculptural pieces.
Julie Barrett: The mourning after …….Photo: Helen Cole.
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The first thing that struck me when presented with the ninety books for the judging of the Libris Awards at Artspace Mackay was something that came up in our Trouble with artists’ books seminar last week- the inadequacy of the digital surrogate. Anna Thurgood, Director of Artspace Mackay had sent me images of each of the entries. Seeing them in the flesh mad me realize I had wildly mis-imagined the size of some of the works. For example, Julie Barratt’s The mourning after, perhaps 50 x 70 cm, I had imagined as a small hand-sized book. Conversely Julie Bookless’ (interesting name for a bookmaker and a potential title for her book as it had neither image nor text but was still a very interesting work) Audrey was a tiny 10 cm tall when I imagined it to be at least octavo size. Size does matter and it does have an effect on the impact of a book.
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Julie Bookless: Audrey ……..Photo Helen Cole
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A noticeable difference between this and past awards was that, because there was no associated forum, very few of the artists who had entered attended the announcement of the award. This connection of the artists’ book community was such a wonderful part of the previous Mackay events and is perhaps the reason we had such a large attendance at The trouble with artists’ books seminar.
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WINNER Category 1. $10,000 Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal National Artists Book Award,
Michele Skelton, Wave form, woodblock print, unique. …….Photo: Helen Cole
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The quality of the entries this year was very high and any of a dozen works could have won the major prize. The winner Wave form by Michele Skelton looks simple (in a photo) but as I said a photo can be deceiving; the book is deeply thought out and faultlessly constructed. It appears sculptural but is actually a traditional codex form with spine, cover and pages. The cover represents the calm of the sea and the shore when the book is closed and when it is opened the pages sewn into the spine spill out as waves which can be arranged and twisted to represent a raging sea. The choice of paper is perfect to allow this. The waves are printed from a woodblock and this choice of technique works beautifully with the colour and subject to evoke the classic Hokusai image The great wave. It has the advantage that it is an artist’s book that can be seen as a whole while on display without handling.
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Caren Florance: WYSIWYG ………Photo: Helen Cole
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Another work that does that is Caren Florance’s clever WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). To enable the viewer to see the whole book without having to touch it, Caren letterpress printed a sheet multiple times then cut and bound the pages so that one line from each page is visible. They build up to a witty text written to the reader from the book’s point of view, stating that it understands the viewer’s problem and hopes it has solved it. And it has.
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Helen Cole … Coordinator, Australian Library of Art, State Library of Queensland
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Thank you Helen for this commentary
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SEE THE OFFICIAL AWARD WINNERS AND IMAGES OF THE OPENING AND THE BOOKS FROM THE ARTSPACE MACKAY WEBSITE:
http://www.artspacemackay.com.au/whats_on/news/libris_awards_photo_gallery
http://www.artspacemackay.com.au/whats_on/news/and_the_winner_is…
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SEE ANOTHER BLOG WITH ENTRY PICS AND LINKS TO ARTIST’S PAGES.
http://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/more-from-the-libris-awards/
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All photographs © Helen Cole 2013. Copyright in the artworks resides with the artists.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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2013 LIBRIS AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED
FROM THE ARTSPACE MACKAY WEBSITE: http://www.artspacemackay.com.au/whats_on/news/and_the_winner_is…
COOPER+SPOWART TALK ABOUT PHOTOBOOKS
Victoria Cooper talking about photobooks @ Foto Frenzy
On the evening of May 21 Victoria + Doug presented a talk and showing of their self-published photobooks and artists books. Entitled LOOKING GOOD IN PRINT: PHOTOBOOK, the talk connected participants with concepts and techniques on how to personalize and create photo-stories in the form of the bespoke self-published book.
Participants engaged in a lecture presentation that helped them to develop a broader understanding of what a photobook can be—extending them beyond just a collection of photos into a resolved personal narrative of high technical and aesthetic values.
The range of options for making photobooks was discussed and samples of hand-made, inkjet printed and hand-bound artists’ books, as well as print-on-demand books were available for viewing and handling.
The Intro Session included an overview of the following topics:
- Simple and advanced forms and structures of books
- The creative influence of artists books
- The image, sequence and the narrative flow
- Production and design issues for handmade/print-on-demand book
- Computer processing of the book
- Simple bindings for the handmade book
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Location:
Unit 3/429 Old Cleveland Road, Camp Hill, QLD 4152.
Time + Date: 6.00 – 8.30pm, Tuesday May 21, 2013.
THE FEE: $ 75.
Bookings were made through:
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All photographs + text © Doug Spowart 2013.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
SLQ Siganto Seminar: The trouble with artists’ books
AT THIS TIME THE BLOG WILL FEATURE IMAGES OF THE EVENT
We are happy to receive comments and dialogue arising from the seminar and will post selected feedback. Please leave a comment on this blog for consideration by us for posting.
The podcast is available at http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/audio-video/webcasts/recent-webcasts/siganto-seminar
Cheers Doug+Victoria
From the SLQ website – Promo for the evnt
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The State Librarian Jeanette Wright opens proceedings
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Helen Cole presents the Librarian’s view
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Jan Davis presents the Artist’s view
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Noreen Grahame presents the Gallerist’s view
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Helen Cole chairing the Question and Answer session
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Noreen Grahame answers a question
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Jan Davis answers a question
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The Auditorium crowd
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The Hearsay team members discuss the project
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Attendees viewing the Hearsay book
BLOGPOSTS ABOUT THE EVENT ARE AVAILABLE AT THE FOLLOWING:
Judy Barrass ‘Critical mass Blog’ http://www.criticalmassblog.net/2012/?p=2568
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All photographs © Doug Spowart 2013.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
SPOWART Artists Book Shortlisted for LIBRIS AWARD
The artists book Have you got your Chronicle Today? has been shortlisted for the 2013 Libris Awards – The Australian Artists Book Prize.
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The Libris Awards are Australia’s premier national artist’s book prize. An intitiative of the Mackay Regional Council through Artspace Mackay, these biennial awards seek to develop awareness of council’s significant collection of artists’ books and to develop the collection further through the acquisition of new works by leading Australian artists working in this field. (from the Artspace Mackay website)
My book Have you got your Chronicle today? makes comment on how the tabloid newspaper is reliant on the advertising dollar to support the necessary communication of the daily news. This artists book is a mashup of the news with advertising. The collaged elements comment on content and the way the reader is directed by the newspaper design through the placement of advertisements, journalism texts, photography, community notices and sport. After deconstructing the newspaper, the book’s form changed as new associations of text/image/graphics determined the new structure. The flow through the book matches the newspaper it parodies as it also can also be folded flat for post-reading storage. Details and images of the book and its construction follow – Enjoy … Doug
Have you got your Chronicle today? installation
View a video performance of the book – Click the YouTube image
Have you got your Chronicle today? closed
Have you got your Chronicle today? detail
Have you got your Chronicle today? oblique view
Have you got your Chronicle today? detail
Doug in his atelier making the book
Doug in his atelier making the book
The mess when making a collage
The list of other Finalists is available HERE
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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FRENZIED A.I.R. ‘PoPuP’ Exhibition @ Brisbane’s GALLERY FRENZY
We are now in Brisbane participating in an Artist in Residence @ Foto Frenzy in Coorparoo.
On Wednesday evening we presented an artist’s talk about our previous residencies and our approach to ‘Place Projects’. The event was attended by around 40 photographers, artists and students.
The exhibition will be on show on Easter Monday April 1st and Tuesday 2nd of April – We will be in attendance at the gallery between 11.00 am and 4.00 pm on those days.
GALLERY FRENZY is in the Foto Frenzy Photography Centre
Unit 3/429 Old Cleveland Rd, Coorparoo QLD 4151
We are also presenting a series of workshops @ Foto Frenzy–for details visit the website WWW.WOTWEDO.COM.
FRENzied A.I.R. Poster
Ian Poole, a Director of Foto Frenzy, opens the exhibition.
Vicky talking about her work
Selfie with Ian Poole
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SOME OF THE WORK ON SHOW …
The exhibition features a selection of Camera Obscura works, Projections, cyanotypes and artists’ book and photobook works.
CarCamera concertina book
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PLAY A VIDEO OF SOME OF THE CARCAMERA WORK
The ‘Hitting the Skids’ flipbook
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PLAY A VIDEO OF THE FLIPBOOK
‘A cyanotype by Doug Spowart ‘Wooli Beach Junk’
Projection – Myall Park Botanic Gardens
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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YOU ARE INVITED: Meet the Artists Talk @ Foto Frenzy
Meet the artists, see their work, hear them talk about creativity, invention, tinkering with art, and how to pursue personal directions in art-making and life.
The artists will also launch their Foto Frenzy workshop series and Artist in Residence.
Foto Frenzy
Unit 3, 429 Old Cleveland Road
Brisbane, QLD 4151
Australia
Wednesday, 27 March 2013 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)
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The event is FREE but seating is limited. Please book through Eventbrite
Click Here
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Victoria Cooper and Doug Spowart of Photographers of the Great Divide, are visual artists working in the fields of photoimaging, books as art, cultural research and education. They have collaborated on many art projects and exhibitions of book works that have featured their room and car camera obscuras.
As part of their PhD studies research and artworks produced were in the form of Photobooks and Artists Books. Both are Masters of Photography and Honorary Fellows of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography.
Spowart and Cooper have both lectured in Australia and New Zealand on the topic of the photobook and artists’ books and their book have been purchased for the rare book and manuscript collections in the State Libraries of Queensland and Victoria, and the National Library of Australia.
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Visit <wotwedo.com> for the Cooper and Spowart Workshops.
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CODEX 9: ARTISTS’ BOOK DISCUSSION MEETING
Queensland, it seems, is the place to be if you are interested in artists’ books (ABs). Queenslanders have one of the countries most significant collection of artists’ books in the State Library of Queensland, another significant private collection held by Noreen Grahame, herself a major contributor to the AB in this country. Other collections and events coordinated by Artspace Mackay including the Focus on Artists’ Books Forum and Libris Awards. There are also major practitioners of the art living and working in Queensland including Katherine Nix, Adele Outteridge, Wim de Vos, Ron McBurnie, Stephen Spurrier, Helen Malone, Jack Oudyn, Judy Barrass, and many more.
CODEX Event graphic
In this fertile space for ABs a small band of interested practitioners recently met to discuss the idea of forming a special interest group dedicated to the discipline. The invitation came as an email under the auspices of a CODEX 9 event with the following statement:
books by artists / artists books
printmaking, letterpress, papermaking and more
artists interested in making books are invited to
join an Impress Printmakers discussion group
located in Brisbane to foster and promote
contemporary artists book practice
Meeting on level 4 of the State Library of Queensland the 10 attendees represented a broad range of artists many of whom have had significant activity within the AB discipline, some had experiences of working as teachers using the book as a learning tool, some had academic links to ABs apart from their practice of making books, all had a definite interest in the discipline and wanted to engage in the idea of the discussion group as proposed in the invitation.
CODEX Event + Impress Printmakers AB discussion meeting
During the meeting many topics were raised including:
- The dogged question of ‘what is an artist’ book?
- What is not an artists’ book?
- Where does the apostrophe go in the term artists book and why does it move
- The Duchampian view of the ‘found object’ as art and his often cited idea that ‘it’s art because I say it is, and I’m an artist’
- If it has a colophon then it’s an AB(?)
- Scrapbooks as AB and the silent ‘s’ in the term scrapbook
- Ideas of sharing knowledge about the gamut of the discipline
One participant presented a polemic to the group, proposing that a freestanding 3D object on the table before us could be an AB – how would we know? The object was a folded “No food or drink allowed” SLQ sign. Discussion ended and reinforced the group’s interest in being challenged, as through such knowledge and understanding emerges.
a polemic for an artists book
Other structural matters relating to the group’s future activities, meeting schedule, email and communications methods were discussed. Some requested a degree of anonymity at this time. It was noted that the SLQ will be hosting the next Siganto seminar with the topic being the trouble with artists’ books. It was agreed that it will be a ‘must attend’ event.
The meeting concluded in a convivial mood with most attendees going for a coffee, and we guess, some more conversations about the idea of the artists book …
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Doug and Victoria
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
LAUNCH: WOTWEDO.COM – the Cooper+Spowart workshops
For over 30 years Doug Spowart and 20 years for Victoria Cooper, have participated in training for creatives including artists and photographers. The pair has lectured in art and photography at TAFE colleges, universities, workshops, conferences and seminars for students, amateurs and professionals alike. Now, during April, May and June, through WOTWEDO.COM @ Brisbane’s Foto Frenzy, they offer a range of specialised & bespoke training and consultation services.
Both Doug and Victoria are Masters of Photography and Honourary Fellows of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP). Throughout most of the 1990s Doug was the Chairperson of the AIPP Professional Photography Awards. In the mid 2000s both Vicky and Doug were involved as AIPP representatives in writing national photography TAFE level curriculum for Certificate and Diploma of Photography programs. In the last 10 years Victoria and Doug have engaged in part-time university study in photography and the world of artists books and art.
in 2013 Doug and Victoria are taking a sabbatical from TAFE teaching to pursue post-doctoral research and to re-engage with their arts practice. These workshops are part of their ‘Leap of Faith’ initiative that was introduced in their earlier blog post.
Do review their WOTWEDO workshop program and see WOT-THEY-CAN-DO for YOU!
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THE WORKSHOPS
SERIES 1: TINKERING WITH PHOTOGRAPHY
Is your photography becoming formulaic (predictable) and more about digital technology and post-production than about the hands-on experience of taking photographs? Do you want to investigate possibilities of making a personal style beyond Instagram, Lomography and Hipstamatic filters?
This series is crammed full of projects and ideas that will present you with challenges, weird stuff, things you’ve heard about but never had the chance to try, and things that require a rush of the creative thought juices. Use this workshop to reconnect with your love of photography.
Dates (Tentative) 6 Sessions: Monday, April 15, 22, 29 and May 6, 13 & 20, 2013.
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SERIES 2: LOOKING GOOD IN PRINT–PHOTOBOOKS
By now everyone has made a photobook and in many ways current technology makes it easy to make one. But a photobook can be so much more – it can be a hand-made artwork or a super-slick prestige trade styled publication.
The Looking Good in Print: Photobook introductory session and workshop series will connect participants with concepts and techniques on how to personalize and create photo-stories in the form of the bespoke self-published photobook.
The range of options for making photobooks will be discussed and samples of hand-made, inkjet printed and hand-bound artists’ books, print-on-demand books will be available for viewing.
Dates (Tentative) 5 Sessions: Wednesday, April 10, 24, and May 1, 8 & 15, 2013.
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SERIES 3: INTEGRATED SOCIAL MEDIA
When you Google yourself, or your business, what kind of response do you get? Is your online presence a bit thin or based on content from Facebook, a website maybe, and a few social mentions?
This introductory session and workshop series is designed to help you to start developing an integrated online presence. It will illustrate how an integrated approach to using platforms like Linkedin, WordPress Blogs, YouTube and Behance Folios can create a ‘wall’ of search engine locatable, quality references and social media mentions as to who you are and what you do.
Dates (Tentative) 5 Sessions: Tuesday, May 21, 28, and June 4, 11 & 25, 2013.
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MORE INFORMATION & BOOKINGS
VISIT <www.wotwedo.com> for further details and bookings or contact Doug and Victoria by email info@cooperandspowart.com.au
Bookings through:
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
wotwedid 