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“Artists’ books break all the rules. They stretch, fold, sculpt and reimagine the book as an object — not just something to read, but something to experience”

Curator Maria Savvidis.

 

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PAPER UNIVERSE: THE BOOK AS ART

A MAJOR EXHIBITION OF ARTISTS BOOKS AT THE STATE LIBRARY OF NSW

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The exhibition press release states, ‘Paper Universe: The book as art’ showcases almost 100 rarely seen works from the State Library’s extraordinary collection of artists’ books. Featuring striking and innovative creations, the exhibition reveals how artists transform the idea of a book into works of art. According to State Librarian Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon: “Paper Universe offers a rare chance to experience some of the most inventive, thought-provoking and surprising works in the Library’s collection – many by some of Australia’s most celebrated artists – all in the one place.”

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Paper Universe: The book as art is a free exhibition at the State Library of NSW until 3 May 2026

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Visiting ‘PAPER UNIVERSE’ with Helen Cole+Victoria+Doug

Towards the end of 2025 we were drawn to Sydney to encounter the seminal artists book exhibition PAPER UNIVERSE: The Book as Art. We invited our friend Helen Cole to join us and Helen was able to arrange a meeting with the curator Maria Savvides to discuss the exhibition, the books and their presentation.

After our viewing of the exhibition our reflective discussion about what we had encountered led to an invitation for Helen to write an informed essay from her significant experience and knowledge of the artists book.

What follows after a selection of images, mainly taken by Helen, is her essay and a collection of documents and a video of the exhibition.

 

 

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HERE’S A SELECTION OF BOOKS FROM THE EXHIBITION

“Click” on the image to enlarge and see the caption.

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HELEN COLE’S REFLECTIONS ON THE SHOW

 

When I curated the artists’ books exhibition Freestyle Books from State Library of Queensland’s artists’ books collection in 2008 it was supposed to be a mere taster before a major exhibition of the artform. That never happened. It was very gratifying to find out that State Library of New South Wales has taken up the challenge of both curation and display of this form that can be difficult to exhibit, and given it the title of Paper Universe: The book as art. The curator, librarian Maria Savvidis and her supporting team of librarians, conservators and designers have done a superb job in showcasing the richness of stories and artworks that artists books yield. They were fortunate to have five years to bring the exhibition to fruition, and this is shown by the attention to detail in its staging.

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The exhibition is introduced in the wide corridor leading to it by a huge concertina ‘book’ with blown-up details of three distinctive works. Before you enter, the view of the concertina is a quiet white book by Nicole Hayes with a delicate texture pierced through the page from front and back with pins. As you leave the view is of colourful, forceful black, red and blue designs in linocut and digital prints from books by Dianne Fogwell and Lyn Ashby, summing up the other extreme of the books you have seen.

 

That calm entry leads into a quiet space to engage with the works in the exhibition, provided by dividers reminiscent of Japanese shoji screens. The themes around which the exhibition is woven are well chosen and enunciated in the didactics: the art of inspiration – influences and sources in other artists work; the natural world – its beauty, its power, but also its fragility; the civil condition – investigating, reflecting and challenging social issues, politics, morality and equality; unveiling identity – the shaping of personal, family, and national identities and memories; the artist’s eye –  investigations into the notion of the book. Each is signified by a different colour in the surrounding exhibition architecture – walls, plinths and borders on the screens

The books are very well displayed, individually, with several strategies used to overcome the perennial problem of exhibiting artists books, that they generally cannot be fully experienced when closed or open at only one page. The most common comment about an artists’ book exhibition is “I wish I could see the whole book” and indeed it is my thought too, even knowing how difficult it is to avoid. The curator has gone to great lengths to show as many books in their entirety as possible.

 

The first book in the exhibition, or is it the last? WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) (2013) by Caren Florance, the curator’s own copy, was designed to be seen as a whole when the book is closed, displaying what a rarity that is. The text lines are printed on increasingly larger pages, each peeking out from the one above. Maria Savvidis wrote: “This book served as both a talisman and inside joke for me as the curator of this exhibition, years spent thinking about the paradox of exhibiting artist’s books…WYSIWYG is a wry but generous show of empathy from the artist who understands this difficulty and has shown mercy on collecting institutions tasked with the impossible.” Anne-Marie Hunter created the Tower of Babel (2006), (The Tower of Babel, Artists’ Book By Anne-Maree Hunter | State Library of Queensland) a book in the round which was exhibited in my 2008 exhibition, with the same intent.

 

Several of the works have been removed from their covers and are displayed, page by page, on the wall.  These include Garry Shead’s Ern Malley: The darkening ecliptic (2003): a sequence of etchings, which when presented together create a single image. Along with the display of the ceramic box in which it was presented, this is possibly the best way to show this work.

 

The pages of G.W. Bot’s superb linocuts for Requiem by Anna Ahkmatova (2020) are beautifully arranged framed on a blue background, however not all pages of the book are included so it is unfortunately a circumscribed view of the production.

Other works displayed page by page include Paul Uhlmann’s New Insecta, Queensland: AA Girault (1989), Judy Watson’s A preponderance of Aboriginal blood (2005), Peter Lyssiotis and George Matoulis’ Bridge (2021) and Glenda Orr and Kathy Boyle’s Paradise Lost : an artists’ book exploring the status of threatened & iconic plants from Australia and New Zealand collected by Daniel Solander and Joseph Banks during Captain Cook’s 1770 voyage (2020).

 

The pages of Di Fogwell’s Ashes to ashes – dust to dust: Ash Wednesday 16^th February 1983 (2018) are arranged upright to evoke the flames of the bushfire it describes. There has been some comment that this destroys the original form and order of the books, but I disagree. Some books are meant to be rearranged by the reader or at least read in any order they want. Also, the curator went to some lengths to speak to the artists and present their work as they would want. For most of the works artists’ statements are provided, along with translations of foreign language texts, where appropriate.

I don’t consider print portfolios on a single subject, often by printmaking groups, constitute successful and cohesive artists books, and there are a few in this show including Natural Collection (2017) by the Warringah Printmakers Studio. It was published to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Studio and is based on the species and ecological communities of the Northern Beaches of Sydney that are under threat. Ten of the 29 prints that comprise the work are exhibited over three changeovers, not including the texts which accompany each print. I don’t think this work has a conceptual framework – a common subject, yes, but not enough to tie them together – as a book.

 

Concertina books are perfectly made for display, extended either framed on a wall or standing upright on a plinth. The bold and colourful Wayzgoose Press book Ockers: a poem by Pi O (1999) is displayed partly opened behind glass. A thoughtful work previously unknown to me was Theo Strasser’s In ecstasy, Franz Kafka (2013) in acrylic painting and collage, based on an aphorism by Kafka. Another is Lossed (2022) by Sara Bowen.  Reduction lino prints of her parents, at first strong, becoming lighter as the book is opened page by page. I’m not sure if it represents her memory of them fading or their memories of each other fading through dementia, but it is a very touching work which is displayed to perfection.

 

Several works which could be regarded as book objects were included. The Uluru Book (1994) by Katharine Nix has an imposing physical presence; multiple layers of the hand-made paper for which she is well known, with ochre coloured covers tied with rusted wire and pierced by bones. All elements allude to the close links between the rock and its original inhabitants, and the damage done to the rock and its surrounding environment by the thousands of visitors. Teledex (1981), by Ted Hopkins is a container for poems in the form of an old-fashioned metal teledex, indexed with tabs.

 

Looking for paradise (2020) by Nathalie Gautier-Hartog, is about refugees seeking a home in Australia, but subject to Australian government policies. It is presented as 12 books inside a wire cage, further emphasizing the restrictions placed on refugees. It is noted that all of the books are available to view as PDFs on the artist’s website with a QR code linking to it displayed. There is also a clever animation based on the United Nation’s Human Rights Charter with images from the books showing in the gallery. It is also on her website. It was created in collaboration with Broken Yellow Studio and the Asylum Seekers Centre. I’m not a great fan of digitised artists books but must admit this combination of media enhances interaction and appreciation of the work.

 

Relatively few First Nations artists create artists books, so it was great to see a works by Judy Watson and a work by Penny Evans, who has Gamilaroi, Welsh, Irish and German heritage using the form to examine connections between culture and country in her unique state book Proof (2015). Using collage and digital prints with stitching it was accompanied by a page-by-page video of the work.

 

I was surprised that no works from the origins of artists books were shown: books such as those by Picasso and Bonnard published by Ambroise Vollard and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in Paris in the early twentieth century. It could be because the library doesn’t hold them. A quick search of the SLNSW catalogue revealed Dingo, with drypoint etchings by Pierre Bonnard published by Vollard in 1924, but few others. I was pleased to see the inclusion of Night fall in the ti-tree (1905) by Violet Teague and Geraldine Rede with its delicate woodcuts, and its acknowledgement as the first Australian artists’ book.

 

In a small way the exhibition demonstrates the limitations of the artists’ book collection at the SLNSW, which has not concentrated on its development until relatively recently. Most of the exhibited works have been created in the twenty-first century. There are few books published overseas, one being the fabulous version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1973) by the British artist Susan Allix. The Rubaiyat is a very popular subject for interpretation by artists. An important artist in the history of the artist’s book is American Edward Ruscha, an early exponent of the democratic multiple. He is represented by the concertina photobook Every building on the sunset strip (1966) which has had a huge influence on other artists who continue to create similar works. In this exhibition the book is unusually displayed fully extended to 7.5 metres and is shown with Oxford Street Profile (2011) documenting Oxford Street in Sydney by Australian photographer Philip Quirk. It only stretches to 7.33 metres. It was interesting to see Micky Allan’s early (in Australian terms) artist’s book My Trip (1976). Displayed open, a full facsimile of its newspaper format is also available for closer investigation.

 

Dancing Over Dark Waters (2012), Howl for a Black Cockatoo (2015), and Phantomwise Flew the Black Cockatoo (2017), by Sue Anderson and Gwen Harrison, with Peter Lyssiotis writing the text for Dancing over dark waters, very impressive books all, are very similar materially and in subject. They could have been replaced by other works expanding the breadth of vision made available in the exhibition. Similarly, several artists are represented by more than one work when other artists and their ideas could have been embraced.

 

The exhibition includes some of my favourite artists books including Towla (2017) by Deanna Hitti, with the integral clamshell box creating a board for backgammon, the subject of the book. It is an intriguing book with instructions for backgammon phonetically translated using Arabic and Latin characters but with a twist. Arabic letters spell the instructions in English and Latin letters spell the instructions in Arabic. Some of the books in this exhibition have become my new favourites.

 

In Conclusion

Criticisms of some components of the exhibition are mere quibbles. In retrospect I could make many about my own exhibition in 2008. This is a fabulous exhibition, beautifully curated, wonderfully designed, and a rare opportunity for the public to experience the breadth and depth of the artists’ book. I hope it will introduce the magical world of artists’ books to a whole new audience in Sydney who will follow up with personal experiences with artists’ books in the library. I also hope that SLNSW will continue to support the art form in both acquisitions and exhibitions.

 

Helen Cole

March 14, 2026

 

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HELEN COLE: Brief Biography

Helen Cole is intimately acquainted with the world of artists’ books, including their collection and the opportunities and difficulties in presenting these artworks in a public context. Helen was the Arts and Rare Book librarian at State Library of Queensland for thirty years. During much of that time she was responsible for the development of the Library’s extensive Artists’ Books Collection. She has been significantly involved in the artists’ book discipline writing articles and making presentations at conferences. She has judged the Manly Artists Book Prize once and on two occasions judged the Libris Australian Artists’ Book Prize for Artspace Mackay. In 2008 she curated the SLQ exhibition Freestyle Books: Artists’ books from the collection. Helen also co-curated the Tales from the Lyrebird with Ron McBurnie for Artspace Mackay. Apart from her work developing public collections she has amassed a personal library of cherished books.

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OTHER PAPER UNIVERSE RESOURCES

 

 

 

 

DOWNLOAD: A list of all books in Paper Universe:  Paper Universe Book List

 

DOWNLOAD: A catalogue of Didactic Information on Each Book: Paper Universe Exhibition Captions

 

DOWNLOAD: A Press Release of the exhibition: Paper Universe Media Release

 

 

 

We wish to acknowledge the courtesy extended to us by curator Maria Savvidis.

 

The Reflection text ©2026 Helen Cole

All photographs are by Helen Cole unless otherwise credited.

© is retained by all authors

 

All photographs have been digitally optimised by Doug Spowart.

 

 

 

 

 

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