Manly Library Artists' Book Award selection

Last year Helen Malone and I  finished our collaborative book "The Future of an Illusion". (For details and images of this book please click the link.) Since we haven't had a chance to show our book , we were both delighted to be selected by 

the judges Michael Hedger and Ben Rak for exhibition in the 2017  Manly Library Artists' Book Award.

In addition I also had a little book I had made by myself accepted - "Redacted in Limbo".

“[Redacted] in Limbo is informed by my concerns for refugees who to come looking for freedom from persecution and a new life as migrants in Australia. The triangular is a metaphor for the tents they live in or the boats they use to make their journey.

The title of the book refers to source of the text which is from the “Nauru Files” published by the Guardian Newspaper in November, 2016. Most information of conditions in the camps and treatment of the refugees has been kept secret from the public by the Australian Government.

The book has felt covers from old Army blankets which have been waxed to make them still like sails and the book has been designed to stand up so that pages can be viewed and turned. Bitumen and canvas have also been used to suit the rugged outdoor feeling of the book and make it waterproof.. 

 The design uses some of the text from the “Nauru Files” and image repetitions of cut-out stencil people who are confused, damaged and mixed up as shown by the random crumpling of the paper, to a more ordered, peaceful one. 

The individual waxed pages of the book involve crumpling, and layering and repetition of images and text as metaphors for the mental health and physical damage caused by the harsh process used to settle our new citizens that came by boat. 

Although the crumpled marks can be smoothed they can never be removed.