ARTISTS BOOKS+AUSTRALIA: Comment for CODEX Journal
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Early in 2019 Vicky and I received an email from Monica Oppen and Caren Florance inviting our contribution to a report commenting on news and updates on book arts activity in the Antipodes that they were preparing for the Codex Foundation‘s new journal The Codex Papers. They mentioned that they were asking for those involved with projects, conferences, workshops, collections and awards to send through their comments and plans so the local scene could be collated into the report.
Monica and Caren added that, Your commitment to the photo books and also to documenting events for the past years (or is it decades now?!) has lead us to decide that we must ask you what you see as the trends and key events of the past couple of years. Any feedback (your personal view) on the state of the book arts in Australia at the moment would also be of interest.
We were particularly excited to have been invited to contribute and over the days following the request we collaborated on a document that outlined our view of the scene. Photo documents that we had made were reviewed and prepared and forwarded, along with our text to Monica and Caren. The task of collating and blending the individual responses into a single report was completed and forwarded to the Codex Foundation.
Early this year the report was published and we received a contributor’s copy. We were impressed with the journal and the many interesting commentaries on the book arts from around the world. It was interesting to see the complete report and to read the individual contributor’s comments.
Published below is our text and some of the photographs we contributed in response to Monica and Caren’s invitation.
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Notes on the Antipodean book arts in the Antipodes for Caren + Monica
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In the 1990’s and early 2000’s, the world of the artists’ book in Australia was an exciting place. In Brisbane Noreen Grahame, through her Grahame Gallery, Numero Uno Publications, Editions and the Centre of the Artists’ Book championed the Australian artists’ book discipline. Grahame efforts were directed towards artists’ book exhibitions which started in 1991, art book fairs the first of which was held in 1994 and special invitation themed artists’ book exhibitions featuring clique of prominent national book makers.
Artspace Mackay under the directorship of Robert Heather hosted the first of 5 Focus on Artists’ Book (FOAB) Conferences in 2004. Over the years FOAB brought to Australia some of the world’s noteworthy practitioners and commentators on the discipline including Marshall Weber, Keith A Smith and Scott McCarney and juxtaposed them with local key practitioners. For the next 6 years those interested in artists’ books gathered to participate in lectures, workshops, fairs and a solid community of practice developed. In 2006 Artspace Mackay added the Libris Awards: The Australian Artists’ Book Prize that, with a few breaks, continues to be the premier curated artists’ book exhibition and award in Australia.
Queensland also had 10 years of artists’ book exhibitions and 5 years of conferences from 1999-2008 at Noosa Regional Art Gallery. In many ways Queensland was the place to be if you were into artists’ books.
In this period a few other artists’ book awards took place including the Southern Cross University’s Acquisitive Artists’ Book Award from 2005-2011.
Throughout the 1990s and until fairly recent times State Libraries and the National Library of Australia actively collected and built significant artists’ book collections. These included many forms of the artists’ book including: private press publications, significant book works by recognised international and Australian practitioners, books as object/sculpture, zines and the emergent photobook.
Now around the country major libraries are feeling the push by managers to move access to the library’s resources online thus the importance of the physical object and the tactile connection with items such as artists’ books is now not considered part of the service that the institution needs to provide. For example, the State Library of Queensland’s Australian Library of Art, which houses one of the largest artists’ book collections in the country, is now without a dedicated librarian. Research fellowships and seminars that were once administered by the Library and supported the Siganto Foundation are no longer available. Information and advice about the collection and other exhibitions or group viewings of artists’ books from their extensive collection have been significantly affected.
In recent years two Artists Book Brisbane Events coordinated by Dr Tim Mosely at Griffith University has facilitated a significant connection between the American and European scenes with guest speakers like Brad Freeman (Columbia University – Journal of Artists Books), Sarah Bodman (Centre for Fine Print Research – The University of the West of England), Ulrike Stoltz and Uta Schneider (USUS). The conferences also have included a place for discussion and review of the discipline by academics and emergent artist practitioners from Masters and Doctoral programs. These two ABBE conferences have provided a platform for academic discourse.
The artists’ book medium has been principally the realm of the printmaker as their artform easily enabled the production of printed multiples. Digital technologies, new double-sided inkjet papers as well as print-on-demand technologies have enabled the emergence of a range of new self-publishers – particularly photographers.
In 2011 I completed my PhD the title of which was Self-publishing in the digital age: the hybrid photobook. From my experiences in the artists’ book field as a practitioner and commentator and my lifelong activities in photography I saw a future for the photobook which could be informed by the freedoms and the possibilities for the presentation of narratives. While some aspects of this prophecy have been the case with some photographers, particularly those involved in academic study, the main thrust for the contemporary photobook has been towards the collaboration with graphic designers. These books take on various design and structure enhancements including special bindings, foldouts, mixed papers, page sizes, inclusions and loose components that can, at times, dilute the potential power of the simple photographic narrative sequence. The contemporary photobook has developed into its own discipline and through the universal communication possibilities of social media, conferences and awards a new tribe has emerged quite separate from and unaffected by the artists’ book community.
Over the last 5 years the National Gallery of Victoria has presented the Melbourne Art Book Fair. In keeping with the art book fair worldwide movement participants man tables selling their publications. These can range from Institutional/gallery catalogues, trade art publications and monographs, artists’ books, photobooks and zines. The umbrella-like term and the spectacle of the ‘Art Book Fair’ as an event to witness and participate in has captured the individual disciplines and united the various tribes into one, not so homogeneous – community.
A quick review of the 2019 Melbourne Art Book Fair’s 86 table-holders there were only a handful of artists’ book-makers, perhaps a similar number of photobook publishers and a large contingent of zinesters and self-published magazines. The bulk of the tables were held by book distributors, bookshops, arts organisations, educational institutions and art galleries. The discipline of artists’ books was not significantly represented in this space. Was that due to the National Gallery of Victoria’s selection of table-holders or was it to do with artists’ book practitioners not considering the event as a relevant opportunity to show and sell their works?
Ultimately the question is – what is the status of the artists’ book in Australia at this time? My impression is that one of artists’ books key strengths was its closeness to the printmaking discipline and the cohesive bond of makers, critics and commentators, educators, journals, collectors and patrons. As many of these are connected to the tertiary academic environment and collecting libraries, both of which are fighting for their relevance in a changing education and library world, could it be considered that this is a defining moment in the history and the future of the artists’ book in this country?
Doug Spowart co-written with Victoria Cooper
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All photographs ©Doug Spowart
LYSSIOTIS+COOPER+SPOWART: WE ARE LIBRIS AWARD Finalists
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The LIBRIS AWARDS for Australian Artists Books is on again this year at Artspace Mackay – We are excited to announce that our works, including a Peter Lyssiotis book we collaborated on, have been selected in the 60 finalists. The exhibition is scheduled at Artspace Mackay between 27 June and 13 September 2020.
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A statement from the Artspace Director Tracey Heathwood
Since opening its doors in 2003, the gallery has been dedicated in its exploration and support of the artists’ book medium. The Libris Awards play a significant role in showcasing the very latest and best in contemporary artists’ book practice in Australia.
As extraordinary developments continue to unfold in response to Covid19, Artspace Mackay has faced and overcome many challenges presented throughout the year to now be in the final exciting stages of delivering another inspirational exhibition, 2020 Libris Awards: The Australian Artists’ Book Prize.
Despite restrictions beginning to ease across the country, lingering interstate travel constraints prevent our designated 2020 Libris Awards judges, Des Cowley and Robert Heather – who have already completed the challenging job of selecting finalists from an extensive range of artists’ books entries from across the nation – from travelling to Mackay for the final process of selecting winners in the three categories. In these exceptional circumstances, Artspace Mackay Director Tracey Heathwood will complete the final process of selecting this year’s prize winners.
Announcement of 2020 Winners: 4:30pm (AEST) Monday 13 July – Live streamed online via Artspace’s Facebook page.
HERE ARE THE BOOKS we were involved with :
PETER LYSSIOTIS: WHAT THE MOON LET ME SEE
A collaboration with Victoria Cooper + Doug Spowart who created and optimised pinhole images of Peter’s montage image to accompany his texts.
Peter Lyssiotis: What The Moon Let Me See
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
The narrative of What The Moon Let Me See is a journey. It is also about a father and son and how their lives, and their purposes in life interweave. The journey is to a mountain; it could be Thomas Mann’s ‘Magic Mountain’, it could be the Bible’s Mount Ararat or it might be that mountain you see on the horizon when you look out of your car window as you drive through the country. The father and the son may be Abraham and Isaac or Kafka and his father or the father and son who live next door, or you and your father … the journey they’re on involves making decisions; perhaps the son will release the father, maybe the father will free the son … how do these two people read and map their worlds, how do they refer to the world here and the world beyond them?
VICTORIA COOPER: BEING PRESENT
Victoria Cooper’s BEING PRESENT
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Being Present has its physical origins from the Bundanon Trust and the Shoalhaven River.
The electron microscopic images come from unexplored work made during an earlier residence in 2007 of collected detritus from the river. The montages were constructed with these microscopic images as interventions into a riparian environment near the property.
The book is informed by the work of notable writers, thinkers and philosophers, Martin Heidegger and Rachel Carson.
DOUG SPOWART: HOME
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Doug Spowart’s book HOME
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
This book was conceptualised and created during an artist’s residency at Bundanon near Nowra in New South Wales in June 2018. The final design of the book took place in 2019.
For 5 years I have been homeless resulting from the need to travel, seeking work, looking for a place to settle, and maintaining connections with supporting friends and colleagues. The residency enabled inner thoughts to emerge that have been suppressed throughout this time.
Self-imaging is not something new to me. What is new however in this work is the frank reality of the expression, pose and perhaps vulnerability I present in these moments contemplating ‘home’ and what it means to me.
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Download a copy of the Catalogue:
LIBRIS_AWARDS-2020_Finalists_Catalogue
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SEE Other WOTWEDID.COM posts about the LIBRIS AWARDS:
Our FINALIST work from the 2018 Awards
https://wotwedid.com/2018/05/27/libris-artists-book-award-cooperspowart-finalists/
A COMMENT on the 2016 Awards
https://wotwedid.com/2016/10/22/covering-the-2016-libris-artists-book-award/
The JUDGE’S VIEW from Helen Cole of the 2013 Awards
https://wotwedid.com/2013/05/13/2013-libris-awards-the-judges-view/
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TWENTY-Documentary photography in Queensland
We are excited to announce that a selection of our Nocturne photographs of Queensland are featured in the new State Library of Queensland exhibition TWENTY: Two decades of Queensland Photography
FROM THE SLQ Website:
The State Library of Queensland has grown a vast photographic archive reflecting the lives of generations of Queenslanders. TWENTY focuses on images in State Library’s contemporary collections. They reveal a story of a changing Queensland—one that still has echoes of its past but is also embracing a more diverse and tolerant future.
TWENTY is an opportunity to reflect on the last 20 years in Queensland’s history. Documentary photography plays a vital role in capturing the events and experiences that shape our lives. It offers us a powerful insight into a particular moment in time.
Looking back, the year 2000 seems a simpler time. Over the last two decades, society has undergone seismic shifts. Yet, some things transcend time: the shock and devastation caused by natural disasters; the beauty of our state’s wide-open spaces; and the ongoing connection of people to place. Immerse yourself in this rich and complex history.
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VIEW THE ONLINE EXHIBITION HERE: https://twenty.slq.qld.gov.au/
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Some of our Nocturne Queensland photographs featured in the TWENTY exhibition
ABOUT COOPER+SPOWART: Nocturne Imaging Projects
Photography is integral to the way we capture, interpret and share our experiences and deeply considered views of our world.
For around ten years we have been photographing the visual transformation of small towns and suburban places in those last moments of daylight and into night. Our intent is to capture this transient magical atmosphere of twilight where the afterglow of sunset combines with the illumination of streetlights and the room lights from inside houses that say someone is home. Additionally as some photographs created at this time require long camera exposures, the image captured shows the ghostly, blurred movement of people and car headlight trails.
The experience of nocturnal light is seductive yet uncanny. It connects us to the sustained beautiful melancholy felt when listening to Debussy’s Clair de lune while simultaneously evoking the unsettling, dark moments of a film noir movie.
Over the last seven years we have significantly documented as artists in residencies and personal projects communities including Muswellbrook, Grafton, Armidale, Bundaberg, Toowoomba, Miles, Cygnet, Wooli, Castlemaine, Murwillumbah, Bribie Island and numerous central NSW and Victorian regional towns.
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SEE MORE OF OUR NOCTURNE IMAGES FROM EAST COAT AUSTRALIA
@ www.nocturnelink.com
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TWENTY: THE CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
FROM THE SLQ Website: The 56 photographers featured in TWENTY represent the incredible diversity of Queensland’s documentary photography community. Some are well-known, some are emerging, some have been practising their craft for years relatively unknown. Some studied photography, some are self-taught. They are all dedicated to documenting Queensland and their work has allowed State Library to develop an astonishing visual archive of our state in the contemporary era.
Michael Aird
David Allen
Anthony Anderton
Patricia Baillie
Stephen Booth
Hamish Cairns
Brian Cassey
Darren Clark
Suzanna Clarke
Jacqueline Curley
Rodney Dekker
Heidi Den Ronden
Jo-Anne Driessens
Justin Edwards
Leif Ekstrom
Liss Fenwick
Peter Fischmann
Amanda Gearing
Juno Gemes
Craig Golding
John Gollings
Troy Hansen
Josie Huang
Kelly Hussey-Smith and Alan Hill
John Immig
Reina Irmer
Daryl Jones
Cassandra Kirk
Marko Laine
Cameron Laird
Madeleine Marx-Bentley
Dominique Normand
Glen O’Malley
Chris Osborne
Renee Eloise Raymond
Mick Richards
Hannah Roche
Troy Rodgers
Brian Rogers
Dean Saffron
Jeremy Santolin
Cathy Schusler
Sarah Scragg
Arthur Liberty Seekee
Clare Sheldon
Doug Spowart and Victoria Cooper
Reuben Stafford
Brodie Standen
Jason Starr
Richard Stringer
Garry Taylor
Shehab Uddin
Alf Wilson
Marc Wright
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COOPER’s SUBMISSION: Review of Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
FROM THE FORWARD TO THE EPBC REVIEW DOCUMENT:
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, plays a significant role in the protection and management of our environment and heritage. It operates within a broader context, alongside other Commonwealth laws and activities and those of state, territory and local governments. The activities of businesses, land managers and the community are also central to achieving environmental outcomes.
The EPBC Act requires that an independent review be undertaken at least once every ten years. The review must examine the operation of the Act and the extent to which its objects have been achieved. The last review was completed in 2009.
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Victoria’s response to this review that follows comments on the potential acute and long term affects of environmental damage to the very substance that makes up our planet: land, water and sky.
The importance of Microbial life in the protection of, and biodiversity conservation in, the Australian environment.
My background in science is at a technical level working in both Human and Plant Pathology. I have also completed a PhD where my research examined the communication of freshwater issues in Australia and focussed on the interplay of cultural and creative visual narratives with a science project on aquatic fungi. This research brought together both my current practice in the visual arts and my past experience in science.
In my work I have witnessed the power of microbes as they shape our corporeal and environmental ecologies. When any of our physical systems become unbalanced or neglected these unseen co-inhabitants can become pathogenic impacting on our health and that of the planet. Alternatively if these organisms are lost from the many systems they support – life will cease to exist. For example a forest without fungi and bacteria, dead material would not be decomposed and recycled to renew the land.
My response to this review comments on the potential acute and long term affects of environmental damage to the very substance that makes up our planet: land, water and sky.
My concern is that this review is not addressing the following:
- The creation of a researchable archive on the renewable and sustainable effects of any impact on any microbiological agent. For example the change to the natural microbial community and populations on soil health from removing native grasses, or deforestation of old growth habitat; or the affects on the microbial environment in drying-out of critical wetlands that are drained and not replenished when water is available. If we create an imbalance in the microsphere, this will continue throughout the entire system.
- Create more professional and academic avenues of research to highlight the importance of a cross-discipline collaborative intelligence in this archive.
2.1 By including and financially supporting more broadly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Indigenous knowledge and experience;
2.2 Australia government initiatives and entrepreneurship for Research and Development into innovative forms of Sustainable and Renewable technology to provide new ways to live with, know and imagine the unique Australian microbiota; and
2.3 Recognizing the urgency with which this action is needed for this work to be undertaken.
The ecology of the micro-environment has developed over many millennia from the beginning of life on Earth. Micro-organisms are in every part of our existence: in and on our bodies, the air we breathe, the food we eat, our soils and waterways. Australia has uniquely developed systems that support our diverse and rich geology, flora and fauna.
The interconnected relationships of micro to macro need to be well understood, protected and maintained in order to continue to sustain life’s balance.
Victoria Cooper PhD
A copy of the EPBC ACT REVIEW Document can be downloaded – Click this link: epbc_act_review_discussion_paper_0
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Some of Victoria’s visual research work relating to the ideas embodied above…
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2020 WORLDWIDE PINHOLE DAY 26 April – Our images
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Around the [w]hole world on Sunday April 26, 2020 pinholers were out having fun – Making their images for the 2020 Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.
This year we are hunkered down during the Pandemic in Toowoomba, Queensland Australia. Once again, far away from the darkroom, we’ve fitted a piece of aluminium with a light admitting pin-prick to the body cap of our Olympus Pen camera and braved the parkland at the end of our street. The next day we uploaded our images with a detailed caption to the WPPD website to add to the contributions from Australian pinholers and many more from around the world.
This is the 15th year we have supported the WPD project!
WHAT IS WORLDWIDE PINHOLE DAY ALL ABOUT?
From the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day website introduction
All the photographs in this extraordinary collection share two common characteristics: (1) they are lensless photographs (2) they were all made on April 26, 2020.
They also share an additional and less formal characteristic: the sincere enthusiasm of their creators who, by participating in this collective event, shared individual visions and techniques. Hence the amazing diversity of subjects, cameras, techniques and photographic materials combined in this exhibit!
VICTORIA’s PINHOLE IMAGE
ABOUT VICKY’S PINHOLE IMAGE:
“Walking in the park as it turns to Autumn … Many people are exercising: walking, running, cycling during our period of isolation for COVID-19. I am grateful that during this terrible time, we are able to slow down and reconnect with what is important in our lives.”
DOUG’s PINHOLE IMAGE
ABOUT DOUG’S PINHOLE IMAGE:
“With the world-wide pandemic Covid-19 changing everything signs appear everywhere to remind us to stay vigilant in our resolve to limit community infection. Our local real estate agent has replaced photos of houses for sale with the letters S-T-A-Y H-O-M-E / S-T-A-Y W-E-L-L. Stay healthy everyone…”
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OUR Digi-PINHOLE CAMERA
“This is a converted digital Olympus Pen, shared with my partner Doug Spowart. The pinhole is a pin pierced hole in aluminium which is inserted into a hole drilled into a body cap. It is a hand held exposure of 1/20th second at ISO 800.”
Our digi-pinhole camera is an OLYMPUS Pen digital. The body cover has been drilled-out and a aluminium foil sheet with pin prick acts as the light emitting ‘hole’. Hand-held exposure 1/20th of a second ISO 800″
The 2020 WPPD GALLERY DEDICATION:
to Eric Renner who passed away in the USA last month

Self Portrait: Sweatshirt pinhole camera, Arles, 1996, pinhole photograph, 14″x11″ SOURCE: https://ericrennerphoto.com
VALE ERIC RENNER: Our connection with Eric and partner Nancy Spencer
From early in 1990 Vicky had connected with Eric Renner, partner Nancy Spencer and their Pinhole Resource. We exchanged communications and images showing the work that we were doing in Australia. Eric and Nancy, through their inclusive and generous efforts created a world-wide movement in pinhole photography that continues to grow.
Eric published a body a colour pinhole and zoneplate images from the exhibition Natural Encounter by Vicky in the pinhole journal. Later a collection of Doug’s 4×5 Zoneplate images were also published in the journal.
Over the years we continued to connect and share ideas and some of our work was included in the Focal Press book Pinhole Photography rediscovering a historic technique. Our work was also included in the Pinhole Resource collection, Poetics of Light exhibition and the accompanying Poetics of Light book at the New Mexico Museum of History.
Pinhole photography is a vibrant and exciting world-wide pinhole community and we are grateful for this legacy that Eric, with Nancy nurtured.
There’s a Blog post about the Poetics of Light book and our work in it HERE
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Other images we made on the day…
Visit the WWPD Site for details of other submissions: http://pinholeday.org/
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Our Past WWPD images:
2019 Doug+Vicky https://wotwedid.com/2019/04/29/2019-worldwide-pinhole-day-28-april-our-images/
2018 Doug+Vicky https://wotwedid.com/2018/04/29/2018-worldwide-pinhole-day-29-april-our-images/
2016 Doug: http://www.pinholeday.org/index.php?id=1235
2016 Vicky: http://www.pinholeday.org/index.php?id=1540
2015 https://wotwedid.com/2015/05/04/april-26-worldwide-pinhole-day-our-contributions-for-2015/
2014 Vicky’s http://pinholeday.org/gallery/2014/index.php?id=1810&City=Toowoomba
2014 Doug’s http://pinholeday.org/gallery/2014/index.php?id=1811&City=Toowoomba
2013 https://wotwedid.com/2013/04/29/world-pinhole-photography-day-our-contribution/
2012 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2012/index.php?id=1937&searchStr=spowart
2011 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2011/index.php?id=924
HERE IS THE LINK to the 2011 pinhole video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk4vnbzTqOU
2010 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2010/index.php?id=2464&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
2006 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2006/index.php?id=1636&Country=Australia&searchStr=cooper
2004 Vicky http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2004/index.php?id=1553&Country=Australia&searchStr=cooper
2004 Doug http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2004/index.php?id=1552&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
2003 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2003/index.php?id=615&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
2002 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2002/index.php?id=826&Country=Australia&searchStr=spowart
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The photobook event that THE VIRUS TOOK AWAY
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On the weekend of May 2-3 2020 there was a weekend of major photobook activities planned for the PHOTO 2020 International Photo Festival in Melbourne.
A significant component of the event: A seminal selection of 52 Australian and New Zealand Photobooks* from the State Library of Victoria’s collection was to be made available for public viewing.
On Sunday May 3 international photobook guru Martin Parr was to team up with local photobook aficionado Doug Spowart in a public Q&A session. Of particular interest were their methodologies and considerations for reviewing photobooks. Among other questions it was proposed that they respond to the contentious issues of ‘What validates a book for it to be considered eligible to be included in a canon of photobooks?’ and ‘How such curated selections can energise the recognition for photobooks?’
It was planned that the panel interviewers and contributors to the discussion would be renown writer and Photojournalism Now publisher Alison Stieven-Taylor and would also include the celebrated New Zealand photobook maker and Massey University lecturer David Cook.
An additional event to add to the PHOTO 2020 Photobook Weekend was a major Photobook Fair that would include major publishers, significant photobook makers, a showing of the ANZ Photobook Awards, photobook manufacturers and POD suppliers, workshops and info sessions.
However the COVID-19 pandemic was to change all that …
The PHOTO2020 event, retitled as PHOTO2021 is being rescheduled with the new dates of 18 February – 7 March 2021.
Thank you to founder and Artistic Director Elias Redstone and Producer Rachel Ciesla from the PHOTO 2020 team and Des Cowley from the State Library of Victoria for their efforts to bring this project into fruition. And we look forward to being part of the programme on the rescheduled dates…
Keep up to date with PHOTO 2021
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/photofestivalau/
WEBSITE: https://photo.org.au/
The PHOTO 2021 team have been posting video interviews with a diverse group of international photographers and artists – Check them out…
*52 Antipodean Photobooks: A beginning for a canon of the ANZ photobook
In 2019 the Tate Library received a selection of 52 photographically illustrated books from the Australian and New Zealand region. The books were curated by Australian photobook aficionado Dr Doug Spowart and were specially chosen to extend the Antipodean photobook presence within Martin Parr’s 12.5K photobook donation to the Tate in 2017.
Doug Spowart’s Tate commission came as a result of his meeting with Martin Parr at the 2017 Vienna Photobook Festival. Parr attended Spowart’s lecture on the Antipodean photobook at the Festival and saw examples of the 2016 ANZ Photobook of the Year Awards.

Martin Parr and Doug Spowart reviewing ANZ photobooks at the SLV for consideration to be included in the Tate submission. January 2018. ….. PHOTO: Victoria Cooper
In early 2018 Spowart met with Parr at the State Library of Victoria and shared with him a selection of the photobooks that had been curated for proposed Tate purchase.
While interest in the photobook has resulted in publications and scholarship from every major country in the world the same has not been the case for the Antipodean photobooks. Spowart sees the PHOTO 2020/2021 event as being an opportunity to celebrate ANZ photobooks and bring recognition to the local contemporary and historical publications. To this end Doug Spowart has published a blog entitled The Antipodean Photobook and a FACEBOOK page The Photobook in Australia and New Zealand (under construction @ May 2020).
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Looking forward to PHOTO2021: 18 February – 7 March 2021
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VICTORIA COOPER: Scroll works 1998-2003
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Victoria Cooper talks about her early montage works in the form of 10 scrolls made in the period 1998-2003
The text below begins with a discussion about the first five scrolls, three from Mt Buffalo and two of Phillip Island clouds. This is the first public viewing of these early scroll works.
Following this is a short statement about the next five scrolls, The Five Stories of the Gorge. There is a separate blog post about these scrolls that presents more details and exhibition history along with an image of each scroll. HERE
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For those who can see, existence takes place in an unfurling scroll of pictures captured by sight enhanced or tempered by other senses . . . Building up a language made of pictures translated into words and words translated into pictures, through which we try to grasp and understand our very existence. (Manguel, 2001, p.7)
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Montage and digital narratives
Timothy Druckrey (1994) discusses the montage early in digital era: One of the central considerations in the emergence of electronic montage is the redefinition of narrative and the single image is not sufficient to serve as a record of an event but, rather, that events are themselves complex configurations of experience, intention, and interpretation. Nearly 30 years of the digital evolution, the montage and the collage in all its forms both traditional and analogue continues to shape perception and narrative of the human condition.
About my digital montage scroll works
My first major digital body of work in the late 1990’s was a series constructed visual narratives from photo-documentation in sites significant in my development as an environmental visual poet. In the digital medium, I then cut and blended my collected data/ resource of photographic elements into the multiple perspectives that visually tell my story through the form of rice paper scrolls. The sites were Mt Buffalo, coastal Victoria, and a small area of original forest near Toowoomba.
When I first encountered the landscape at Mount Buffalo, I was filled with a sense of awe. The most significant memories that remain with me are of the journeys from the valley to the summit. Over the years I have undertaken many walks that meander through or climb impressive granite landforms and rich stands of native flora. The Buffalo Scrolls were constructed from many individual elements of the analogue photographic material gathered on site and woven together in the computer later. Although initially informed by the tradition of Chinese and Japanese scroll making, I could not conform to the strict rituals of Asian art school but rather was guided in the production of these works by material thinking and the reflective/reflexive response to memory and corporeal experience.

Victoria Cooper (August, 1999), Buffalo Scrolls, Waterfall,
inkjet on rice paper in acrylic boxes,
Image: 107×27.5 cm, Scroll: 250×30 cm.
The digital environment provided me with a psychological space in which images could be combined, manipulated and layered in the shaping of my story. I utilised image manipulation software to ‘grow’ and distort the landscape. Through this process I found that I was directed to imaginative places beyond any original intent or pre-visualization. Although the work originates in my direct recordings of place, the fluidity of digital space allowed for experimentation and new work to transform and evolve any fixed idea I may have had. So in creating The Waterfall scroll, a large boulder became a precipitous mountain to emphasis the terrain encountered. The trail up to the waterfalls was a seemingly endless rock-formed staircase that proved to be a challenging path.

Victoria Cooper (August, 1999), Buffalo Scrolls, The Cathedral,
inkjet on rice paper in acrylic boxes, Image: 107×27.5 cm,
Scroll: 250×30 cm. Collection of the artist.
The Cathedral scroll journey across a watery marsh dotted with fragile alpine daisies is at times a precarious rock hop. Taking care not to step onto the vegetation beneath. In another of the Buffalo scrolls the ominous granite corridor of The Pinnacle defines the way through expanses of rock to the summit of the mountain in the distance.

Victoria Cooper (August, 1999), Buffalo Scrolls, The Pinnacle, inkjet on rice paper in acrylic boxes, Image: 107×27.5 cm, Scroll: 250×30 cm. Collection of the artist.
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Victoria Cooper (August, 1999), Phillip Island Storm Cloud, left and right views,
inkjet on rice paper in acrylic boxes, Image: 107×24 cm, Scroll: 250×30 cm.
Collection of the artist.
My work with digital scrolls continued with the production of the diptych, Phillip Island Storm Cloud. These two images relate to the sense of anticipation felt when observing an approaching storm.
At Mount Buffalo and Phillip Island, I wrestled with both a fear of taking risks when encountering new and difficult terrain and a strong curiosity to explore the unknown. The scrolls reflect the memories of conflict and fear together with a sense of wonder I experienced within this sublime landscape and, in some ways more broadly, my life.
Installation of Victoria Cooper’s Five Stories of the Gorge
The virtual to the physical
The digital montages can only be seen in the electronic medium through the action of ‘scrolling’. Therefore, as some of my early inspiration came from the Asian form of presenting narratives, I utilised the rice paper scroll transformed the virtual to physical, tactile form. The scrolls are displayed in the vertical format and unravelled from their acrylic container to reveal the entire image. The viewer can enter the scroll at any point as with the initial perusal of a written story and, if engaged fully, can follow the narrative through from beginning to end.
The Five Stories from the Gorge Scrolls
Following this initial work I became more interested with the concept of small and intimate spaces found in everyday life. Five stories from the Gorge, presents a more intimate connection with the environment than the Buffalo series. Instead of trekking up precipitous climbs of distant mountain regions, I followed forgotten pathways and looked into the small, enclosed spaces of this gorge environment near where I lived. I made many journeys into the gorge and on each occasion I took time to absorb many sensory impressions as well as creating a digital photographic record.
As with the Buffalo work, I found that the single viewpoint photographic image did not give me the dynamic reading I sought. So again I created a series of montage scroll works synthesised from my collected visual recordings and sense-memory.
The physical environment of the gorge presented me with some complexities when blending the changes of photographic perspective into a seamless passage through the landscape. Central to this work was to attempt, by the use of scale and viewpoint changes, to reconstruct how the eye scans a scene. As the eye of the observer focuses on single viewpoints then moves to another it not possible to take in an entire scene with a single perspective. With this characteristic of visual perception in mind, I set out to recreate the landscape visually from multiple viewpoints. So in this body of work I seamlessly combined disjointed and sometimes perceptively conflicting views to form images that go beyond the static visual document.
During my visits to photograph the gorge, I also collected objects from the site. For me, the found elements provided a different narrative opportunity. In the scrolls Chaos and Order I investigated these natural elements presented in groupings as a kind of language. These pictographs form poems made up from a natural vocabulary associated with the visual form of the written word.
Each element was scanned into the computer to obtain a replica of their likeness, the objects themselves were later returned to the site to continue their natural cycle. The scroll, Order, begins the dialogue by suggesting the elements of a genetic code. The arrangements of the seeds and leaves and other fragments are seemingly organised and uniform but, on closer observation, there are subtle differences to the repeated segments.
Chaos came as an answer to the cyclic relentless processes that continually ebb and flow through time in nature. It is the interruptions, upheavals and the process of change that nurture and ensure survival. Though these scrolls are without the scenic detail, they are the essence of the region, a distilled manuscript of the cycles and disruptive events in nature over time.
Five Stories from the Gorge, investigates the idea of wilderness and nature that exists in or on the edges of these human inhabited spaces.
Throughout the process of image collection and construction I was informed by the influences of visual poetry, environmental art and my scientific background. The landscape paintings of William Robinson and Lin Onus have both innately influenced the way I see and work over my career. These reconstructed spaces are as fictional as a Tolkien novel but at the same time provide the evidence of existence as if collected in a Darwinian exploration.
Victoria Cooper
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SEE A BLOG POST ABOUT The Five Stories of the Gorge: HERE
Bibliography
Timothy Druckrey (1994). ‘From Dada to Digital, Montage in the twentieth century’, Metamorphoses: Photography in the Electronic Age, Aperture, 136, Summer, pp 4-7.
Timothy Druckery (1996) editor. Electronic Culture, Technology and Visual Representation, New York, Aperture Foundation Inc.
Alberto Manguel (1996). A History of Reading, London, Harper Collins Publishers.
Alberto Manguel (2001). Reading Pictures, London, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
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BRITISH LIBRARY Acquires our cyanotype artists’ book
with 4 comments
A statement about the artwork
Across Australia over the January 26th long weekend, people prepare, cook and consume food to mark this day in history.
For us, this work is our response to, and in recognition of, the ‘turning of the page’ in Australian history that this date represents. One day, January 25th 1788, Aboriginal people feasted on a diverse banquet of bush tucker as they had for thousands of years. The next day, the country was transformed by a new paradigm represented in this work by the table setting of the First Fleet.
Australia Day, for us, is an important time to acknowledge the First Peoples’ perspective and their knowing of land, culture and history and how it should be recognised as underpinning the diversity and identity of contemporary Australia. We, as descendants of European people, are seeking to understand and know more about our place within the longer history of this land.
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View 1: Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788
The 25th of January side of the broadsheet is viewed and contemplated.
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View 2: Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788
The broadsheet is then turned over to view the 26th of January side.
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View 3: Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788
Finally the broadsheet is held up to the light – the complex interrelationship between the two visual references to be seen and considered.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A unique state artists’ book broadsheet
TITLE: Australian Banquet January 25/26, 1788
MEDIA: Double-sided cyanotype image in rice paper
DIMENSIONS: 37.6 x 77cm
PLACE & DATE MADE: Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, 2010
EDITION: 7 unique state variants
SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE BOOK’S HISTORY
COLLECTIONS, EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS:
2020 COLLECTION: British Library
2015 EXHIBITED: Books by Artists – The Webb Gallery as part of the Artists Book Brisbane Event, Conference at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane
2014 EXHIBITED: Artist’s Books (reprised) [artists’ books 1978-2014] – George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne
2014 EXHIBITED: Alternative Imaging – Curated by Dawne Fahey at Two Doors Gallery, The Rocks, Sydney
2011: COLLECTION: Australian Library of Art, State Library of Queensland
2011 SHORTLISTED: Southern Cross University Artists’ Book Award, Lismore. Judge: Ross Woodrow
2011 EXHIBITED: BLUE – Arts Council Toowoomba members exhibition, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery
2010 AWARD WINNER: Martin Hanson Awards, Gladstone Regional Art Gallery – Works on Paper
2010 EXHIBITED: Art Bound – Red Gallery, Glebe, Sydney
2010 FINALIST: Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award – Gold Coast City Gallery. Judge: Judy Annear
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Text and © Doug Spowart+Victoria Cooper
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Written by Cooper+Spowart
January 26, 2020 at 1:20 pm
Posted in Artists Books, Cyanotypes, Wot happened on this day
Tagged with 1788, artists' book cyanotype, Australia Day comment, Australia Day in art, colonial Australia, cyanotype, Helen Cole, invasion day, January 25/ 26, View 1: Australian Banquet