Find your place

[Melbourne] : the artists, 2007. Artist’s book, 110 mm tall, consisting of 22 page concertina offset lithograph by Gracia Haby, bound by Louise Jennison, initalled by Haby. Printed in an edition of 10 copies, this is the single Artist’s Proof.

Exhibited as part of A trapdoor in every room (2007), and later as part of the 2008 Libris Awards: Australian Artists’ Book Prize, Artspace Mackay, Queensland. Editions of this book are in the collections of Artspace Mackay, Bibliotheca Librorum Apud Artificem, the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne University Library, Monash University Library, and the National Gallery of Australia (formally as part of the Ergas Collection).

‘We are besotted with paper for its adaptable, foldable, cut-able, concealable, revealing nature. In our artists’ books, prints, zines, drawings, and collages, we use an armoury of play, humour, and perhaps the poetic too, with intent to lure you closer. The animal is oft present and easily detectable, the centre of our paper stage. Hard to miss, over here and over there, the animal runs up hills, scales rooftops, and sometimes appears to take flight. Gliding through a scene it is too large to be contained within or perhaps too manmade to call home, that it has a tail or feathers or furred muzzle is not solely why its form appears. For us, the animal is there to question our very behaviour, those moral principles one governs the self by, and to explore our relationship with the natural world. The words of Gogol whisper in the ear, “the longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes.” And so, we leave our scenes open-ended, inviting you to ponder and perhaps find that things are not always as they first appear.’ – Artists’ statement

The contemporary artists’ books of Gracia & Louise Our are represented in the collections of Artspace Mackay; Bibliotheca Librorum Apud Artificem; Deakin University Library; Melbourne Museum; Melbourne University Library; Monash University Library; Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery; National Gallery of Australia; National Gallery of Victoria; National Library of Australia; RMIT University Library; State Library of New South Wales; State Library of Victoria; State Library of Queensland; Tate (UK); University of the West of England (UK).