There is a lot of work that goes into art publications – just as much as any piece of fiction. In many ways, they are more complex, often involving several commissioned writers and photography. So why not give them a bit more visibility and credit?
ArtsHub takes a look at new releases this autumn.
Dale Frank, Artist, Artworks 2006-2023
To be released on 15 May, Dale Frank, Artist Artworks 2006-2023 has been co-published by Neon Parc and Perimeter Editions. It is the first major book that documents Frank’s experimental practice, in particular covering the past 17 years.
Designed by Stuart Geddes and Ziga Testen – and featuring major new texts by Edward Colless, Erik Jensen, Amelia Winata and Georgina Reid – it juxtaposes and layers Frank’s works over British fashion photographer Ben Morris’ frenetic, high-flash images of artists’ studios and surrounds. This book is a great coffee table flicker, and a must for any Australian art library.
Author/Editor: Texts by Amelia Winata, Dr Edward Colless, Erik Jensen, Georgina Reid
Publisher: Co-published by Neon Parc and Perimeter Editions
ISBN: 9781922545275
Pages: 408pp, hardcover, edition of 2000
Price: $250
Read: Exhibition review: Dale Frank, National Art School
Somewhat Eternal: Justine Youssef
Launched on 6 April, Somewhat Eternal is a new publication by the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) that documents Justine Youssef’s recent major installation of the same name. It is a light and easy publication – a softcover – but is a great illustration of how you can extend a project in an interesting way.
The publisher says the book takes a look at ‘her investigations into relationships to land, dispossession and enduring beliefs’, and features an essay by exhibition curators Stella Rosa McDonald, Tulleah Pearce and Patrice Sharkey.
It also includes commissioned texts by Wiradjuri/Te Ātiawa, takatāpu/queer writer, poet and campaigner Latoya Aroha Rule, Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer and editor, teacher and researcher Dr Mykaela Saunders, and filmmaker and writer Chi Tran.
On 21 April, IMA also launched its new, ongoing publishing project Town Hall, a newspaper about Queensland art. Clearly the organisation is ramping up its publishing efforts, again.
Author/Editor: Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Publisher: Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Pages: 52pp; softcover
Price: $25
Read: Déjà vu: Robert Leonard on returning to Brisbane’s IMA
Visnja Brdar: Design Exalted
Monash University Museum of Art’s (MUMA) has co-published with Powerhouse Publishing, the first monograph on New York-based designer, Visnja Brdar. It will be launched in June to coincide with an exhibition at MUMA.
Designed by Brdar herself, the monograph positions her work within its Australian, international, design and broader cultural contexts, and take a look at her 37-year visionary career. It features newly commissioned writing from design historians and writers Emily King, Sarah Medford and Denise Whitehouse.
Visnja Brdar: Design Exalted the exhibition continues through to 15 June, and along with the publication launch, is part of 2024 Melbourne Design Week.
Author/Editor: Hannah Mathews, Melissa Ratliff and Sarah Gory
Publisher: Monash University Museum of Art’s (MUMA), Powerhouse Publishing
Pages: 248pp, hardcover
ISBN: 978064555851
Price: $89
Zoë Croggon – How to Cut an Orange
Piecing together a selection of works made over the last eight years by Melbourne artist Zoë Croggon, How to Cut an Orange is a striking example of how artists and publishers can deliver together.
Featuring an essay by poet Samantha Abdy, and a selection of poems by Croggon’s mother – the renowned cultural critic, poet and ArtsHub contributor, Alison Croggon – this publication delves into Croggon’s ‘visceral photographic collages, which are in direct conversation with the words and worlds that bracket and surround them’.
Author/Editor: Zoë Croggon, Alison Croggon
Publisher: Perimeter Editions (Melbourne)
Pages: 104pp, softcover with dust jacket
ISBN: 9781922545282
Price: $65 or $220, special edition of 50 copies (which include a signed and editioned archival inkjet print)
Jeff Gibson: False Gestalt
Written and edited by art historian Wes Hill – with critical contributions from key international voices, including Thomas Crow, Susan Best, Tara Heffernan and Angela Goddard – Jeff Gibson: False Gestalt takes a comprehensive deep dive into Gibson’s career as an artist, writer and editor.
From his formative years immersed in the Brisbane and Toowoomba punk and new wave scenes, and his excavations of the Pictures Generation, Neo-pop and public art in Sydney, to his more recent explorations of typological collage and the countertype – comprising precisely cropped, layered and arranged internet and mass media imagery – Gibson’s practice is characterised by an appetite for scouring, reappropriating and reframing an ocean of images, graphic materials and cultural flotsam.
His time as a senior editor of the influential Art & Text, and his ongoing two-decade tenure as managing editor of Artforum in New York, only work to enrich our reading of his broader oeuvre.
This one is a must! It was launched late last month (27 April).
Author/Editor: Wes Hill
Publisher: Griffith University Art Museum (Brisbane) x Perimeter Editions (Melbourne)
Pages: 152pp, softcover
ISBN: 9781922545305
Price: $49
Nicholas Mangan: A World Undone
Published to coincide with Nicholas Mangan’s survey exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the publication Nicholas Mangan: A World Undone is a richly illustrated monograph that combines artwork, archival and process imagery, and includes an extended interview with the artist, as well as new essays by key thinkers in the fields of anthropology, philosophy, political economy and art history. The book showcases works created by an artist pushing sculpture to new limits.
Mangan’s work is incredibly layered, and this book takes readers on that journey. It would appeal to anyone who has a interest in expanded sculpture, or how human history and our material work has led to pressing global issues. It truly is a stunning publication, and pairing with an international publisher gives this Australian artist global attention.
Author/Editor: MCA
Publisher: Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Australia (Sydney) x Lenz Press (Milan)
Pages: 256pp, softcover
ISBN: 9791280579690
Price: $60
Read: Exhibition review: Nicholas Mangan: A World Undone, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Ten Thousand Suns, the 24th Biennale of Sydney
The catalogue, Ten Thousand Suns, accompanies the 24th Biennale of Sydney led by co-Artistic Directors, Cosmin Costinas and Inti Guerrero. These are always great legacy documents and a must for any art library.
What sets this edition apart is its very textured mixed of artists and perspectives, which is expanded in essays by Te Kuru O Te Marama Dewes, Nils-Aslak Valkepää, John Pule, Alleen Jayamanne, Samia Khatun, Greg Dvorak, Nevil Shute, Margaret Cavendish, Eric Michaels, Karlie Noon & Krystal De Napoli, Elyas Alavi, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, VNS Matrix, Thenmozhi Soundararajah, Amelia Groom and Brontez Purnell.
These texts touch on thematic threads, from the celebration of the resurgence of First Nations technologies and knowledges to the history of Islam in Australia, queer resilience and the international expression of Carnivale.
Other texts explore the atomic era, a concentrated time of climate alteration through human exploitation, within the context of today’s moment of climate emergency and a refusal to concede to an apocalyptic vision of the future.
Author/Editor: Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero, Biennale of Sydney
Publisher: Biennale of Sydney (Sydney)
Pages: 362pp, hardcover
ISBN: 9780958040341
Price: $50
Artful Lives: Penny Olsen
The Cohen sisters (Valerie and Yvonne) – wealthy socialists raised in Melbourne and drawn to the tropics during their winters – mixed with prominent artists, writers, designers and academics longing for a more progressive, independent Australia. Lina Bryans, Arthur Boyd, Clifton Pugh, Noel Wood and Ian Fairweather were among their friends and associates. Their father, Morris, was an exceptional amateur artist.
Artful Lives is a great read about genteel bohemian women, whose lives spanned the 20th century, two World Wars, the Great Depression and the making of modern Australia. Launched late last month (23 April).
Author/Editor: Penny Olsen
Publisher: Melbourne Books
Pages: 272pp, paperback
ISBN: 9781922779199
Price: $39.99
Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia
Released in mid April, this is the back story of Pussy Riot as told by the group’s members. Known for their courageous actions challenging the Russian regime, this book delves into the recurrent themes and actions that have driven their performance-based making.
Edited by Maria (Masha) Alyokhina, a member and cofounder of the feminist-activist performance collective, Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia compiles, in chronological order, the last decade-plus of Pussy Riot’s happenings in Russia.
The book has been published to accompanying a traveling exhibition – the group’s largest presentation of work to date and its first-ever museum show.
Author/Editor: Maria Alyokhina (editor)
Publisher: Louisiana
Pages: 208pp, paperback
ISBN: 9788793659735
Price: $95
mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson
Launched on 25 March to coincide with a major survey exhibition by Waanyi woman, artist Judy Watson, curated by Katina Davison. Watson is described as one of Australia’s most globally collected and exhibited artists. Her practice is centred on truth-telling, in particularly in relation to environmental protection, historic government policies concerning Indigenous Australians and collecting cultural material.
mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson is the first Australian state gallery monograph published on Watson and includes paintings, videos, sculptures and selected print works from key moments in her 30-year career. Its title, from a poem in Waanyi language by the artist’s son Otis Carmichael, translates as ‘tomorrow the tree grows stronger’.
The book includes essays by Katina Davidson, Métis curator Tarah Hogue, family interviews and photographs, and a creative response to Watson’s work by Wiradjuri poet Jazz Money.
Author/Editor: Queensland Art Gallery
Publisher: Queensland Art Gallery
Pages: 244pp, hardback
ISBN: 9781925922165
Price: $75
10th annual Melbourne Art Book Fair
The tenth edition of the iconic Melbourne Art Book Fair (MABF) returns to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) from 24-26 May. This year 100 stallholders have been locked in, including an Indonesian focus with Binatang Press and KRACK! Studio, a spotlight on Melbourne’s zine culture curated by Sticky Institute and a display featuring a rotating roster of emerging publishers that allows audiences to explore new imprints each day.
But MABF is way more than one venue – over 11 days from 23 May to 2 June, venues right across Melbourne will join in a packed program of book launches, talks and exhibitions. In addition to events taking place in Ballarat and Castlemaine, the MABF satellite program expands into Geelong with a special publishing edition of the May’d Arts Festival taking place on Friday 31 May and Saturday 1 June at Creative Geelong Centrepoint Arcade, an art book edition of Gallery Tots at the Geelong Gallery and more at the Geelong Arts Centre.
Plan your program and get reading.
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