A book in the library

Last Wednesday night, my unique state artists' book, A Year of Southern Hemisphere Birds, and its companion, A Flight of Twelve Southern Hemisphere Birds, a concertina bound, hand-coloured artists’ book of smaller scale, and an edition of ten, were on display in the Leigh Scott Room of the Baillieu Library at Melbourne University. A year-long project came to a beautiful end on a rainy spring night, as these photos by G, my Dad, Elaine, and Jackie Kerin show.

The night went swimmingly, and for me passed in a mad whirl, which you can read about in G's recent post, A very fine launch in the Southern Hemisphere (along with an additional selection of launch photos).

Thank-you to all those who came along to see the work and to help me celebrate. A big feathered thank-you to my Mum who worked on the bar; Elaine and G who baked all those sweet and savoury biscuits; Peter on the zine stall; my Dad for being an extra hand; Susan Millard for being a great host and allowing me run of such a great space; and writer and curator, John Kean. You can read John's launch speech here, and take yourself back in time to Wednesday night.

I am delighted to announce that A Year of Southern Hemisphere Birds has been purchased by the State Library of New South Wales alongside an edition of A Flight of Twelve Southern Hemisphere Birds. My Dad is currently making a wooden crate for its transportation by art courier later in the week. Further hand-coloured copies of A Flight of Twelve Southern Hemisphere Birds are also destined for the collections of Melbourne University Library and the State Library of Victoria.