Dancing over dark waters

Sydney : Gwen Harrison and Sue Anderson, 2012. Folio (545 mm tall), full dyed kangaroo with goatskin detail, pp. [28], etched endpapers, folding etched plates, presented in a clamshell box.  Edition limited to 7 unique copies, signed by the artists.

“The work reveals the three artists’ response to one of Sydney’s darkest historical colonial sites, Cockatoo Island, an imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and jail. The text also invokes the present day situation of refugees and refers to “those other islands we use as a noose — Nauru, Christmas Island, Timor, Malaysia,” asking: “When will the time come … when compassion will span the dark waters like an indestructible bridge uniting us and the best part of our dreams for the future with the best part of their dreams for the future.” – SLNSW website

“A collaboration between Gwen Harrison, painter & printmaker; Sue Anderson, letterpress printer & designer binder; Peter Lyssiotis, artist & writer who contributed the prose. Multi-plate intaglio prints using handcut etched & found & manipulated steel plates, chine colle & letterpress. Handset Gill San[s] & Perpetua, Gothic wood type. Charbonnel ink on Maguani Corona 310 gsm” – from the Colophon.

Two copies recorded in Australian collections (National Library of Australia, State Library of New South Wales), a third in the Bibliotheca Librorum Apud Artificem, Sydney.