Page preening and costume turning
Rare books and artists’ books
Paper Universe: The book as art
State Library of New South Wales
1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney, NSW
Monday 11th August, 2025 – Sunday 3rd May, 2026
Whether In the headdress of a Maiden from The Rite of Spring, 1913, with an Okapi (Okapia johnstoni) or In the borrowed costume of Prince Charming from The Sleeping Princess, c. 1921, with a Black-bearded saki (Chiropotes satanas), you’re all invited to a Paper Universe.
We are delighted that several of our artists’ books, from the collection of the State Library of New South Wales, will be shown alongside other pieces from their collection. Keep your eye out for the Spring edition of the library’s Openbook.
Until our Salvaged Relatives and Bowerbirds unfurl in their finery, in giddy company, as part of the Paper Universe: The book as art exhibition, there is enough time to rewind to some further Melbourne Rare Book Week 2025 highlights.
Included below, scenes of death and decay from the Council Room of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons for Le Mort or la Mort: The origins and cultural context of the Danse Macabré, presented by Elizabeth Milford. Elizabeth deftly guided us through the first Dance of Death mural, painted on a wall in the cemetery of Les Innocents in Paris, to a series of woodcuts by Hans Holbein, replete with a Nun caught making eyes at her lute-playing lover as, unbeknownst to her, Death snuffs her candle. Not unlike the Nun, whose attention was elsewhere, Rare Book’s Alissa Duke captured the whole dance of swaying skeletons for posterity in the pages of her sketchbook. There we were, coats and scarves on, the two of us, amidst a gathering of enthusiasts wrapped in a collective sense of quickly does she go, life.
Also featured, upon the table, the conceptual giddy feast, catalogued piece by piece by Cathy Leahy, Senior Curator, Prints & Drawings, presented as part of Chance Operations: Conceptual Art and the Artist’s Book, at the NGV. Our journey began with Ed Ruscha’s irresistible Twentysix gasoline stations, the required milk after chilli of Various small fires, Nine swimming pools with broken glass full stop, and Some Los Angeles apartments, before Cathy wended our way, anticlockwise, to the ingenious choose-your-own-adventure reading of John Baldessari’s concertina foldout in cross formation Fable. If the exhibition is the book, a device to complete the concept, the display, assembled neatly in conversation with one another, proved the splendour and wit of the afternoon, as The Xerox book, the beautiful seriality of Sol Lewitt, Art & Language publications, and Robert Rooney’s War savings streets drew me in, closer, closer.
Dotted throughout you’ll also find The beauty of Les oiseaux et les fleurs, c.1846, which included brightly coloured illustrations and descriptions of native birds in a petite package; Maria Sybilla Merian’s expanded 2nd edition of her lifelong work on insects and their illustration, shown alongside The frogs and toads of Germany in the manner of Maria Sybilla Merian; The Mouse’s Wedding, Japanese Fairy Tales Series No. 6; and A collection of curious insects (1760–1766), all of which were spotted at the Melbourne Rare Book Fair and still hold an impression. And finally, an illuminated installation of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in the library foyer. A recreation of the 1775 apparatus designed by Sir William Hamilton, Masters of Mechanical Engineering student, Yuji Zeng, and Masters of Mechatronics student, Xinyu Xu, have created a 2025 version of the Vesuvian Apparatus (as part of The Grand Tour exhibition in the Noel Shaw Gallery of the Baillieu Library, at Melbourne University), and it, too, conjured awe.
Paper Universe: The book as art
Curator Maria Savvidis takes artists’ books out of their boxes and shares them with the world
Essay by Maria Savvidis
Openbook, Winter 2025, State Library of NSW
pp. 12–19
Artists’ books not only reimagine what a book can be, they take the viewer on a unique creative journey
Beneath the Library’s surface, hidden deep underground across nine different locations in the stacks, lies an extraordinary, glittering and unlikely collection of art — over 700 items strong — that transcends the expected. Mysterious, elusive and often perplexing, artists’ books challenge our definitions of what a book is, and our traditional methods of displaying books. This wondrous paradox is soon to take centrestage in a major exhibition called Paper Universe: The book as art. It offers a rare chance to experience some of the collection’s most unique and captivating examples of artists’ books, revealed in all their complexity.
In my role at the Library, I’ve spent years acquiring and studying these creations up close. I’ve also learned from their fascinating creators, exploring their thought processes and practices. This has led to the exhilarating but often confounding position of curating these dynamic curiosities for exhibition — artworks designed to be held, turned and touched. Beyond the familiar role of books as vessels for recording knowledge, ideas and stories lies a different, evolving tradition: a book can also be a powerful work of art itself. Artists’ books challenge and disrupt our understanding of what a book can be, and how we experience art when these two magical elements collide.
But what exactly defines artists’ books?
Artists’ books are as complex and diverse as artistic expression itself, and often push the boundaries of traditional definitions. Simply creating or writing a book doesn’t make it an artist’s book; for example, an artist’s sketchbook, or a book with illustrations, does not qualify. What sets an artist’s book apart is the artist’s intention to create the book as a work of art.
In Salvaged Relatives, Melbourne artists Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison breathe new life into anonymous figures from found, late-nineteenth- century cabinet card photos, reimagining them for the present. Adorned with collage, paint and pencil, these people are reborn in a whimsically affectionate homage to the Ballets Russes. Through their innovative and longstanding collaborations, Haby and Jennison transform forgotten pasts into vibrant, playful works of art.
Artists’ books require interaction — page turning, or folding and unfolding — to gradually reveal their contents. Although the exhibition isn’t fully hands on, it highlights the books’ interactive features while balancing the Library’s preservation needs. Unlike static paintings or sculptures, artists’ books are enclosed, folded or boxed. The viewer must actively engage with them, which makes artists’ books as complex and conceptual as human thought, reliant on a dialogue between artist and reader under the umbrella of time.
Time is always a curator’s friend or foe, depending on how much of it there is. I’m often asked what my favourite artist’s book from the collection is, but my answer changes hourly, and even I am surprised by what examples come to mind at any given moment. Like any impactful art, works can resurface in your thoughts months or years after they were first encountered.
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Almost any subject matter, or the style of its execution, can become the ‘canvas’ for an artist’s book. This boundless medium unfolds most vividly in the diverse formats where artists blend timeless techniques with bold experimentation.
Artists’ books invite us to rethink how we perceive and engage with art. They urge us to reconsider the world around us and the very concept of a ‘book’ — its essence, content and structure. They push the limits of design, illustration and storytelling, forever expanding what a book can be.
Maria Savvidis is a Specialist Librarian in Collection Acquisition & Curation and the curator of Paper Universe: The book as art, opening August 2025.
Openbook is a quarterly magazine about books, history, art and ideas, published by the State Library of NSW. It features a range of voices and perspectives, showcases new writing and provides fascinating insights into the Library’s collection
Image credit: Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, With wings outstretched and quivering (detail), 2021, artists’ book. The original Bowerbird collages, of which this artists’ book is a variation of, were created especially for Genevieve Lacey’s Bower.
