Looking to gain a new way of knowing
Prints and artists’ books of late
World of the Book
Dome Galleries, Level 4
The Dome, State Library Victoria
Saturday 4th July – Sunday 16th May, 2026
Gracia HABY & Louise JENNISON
How will they know there’s no-one left, no. 1 of 10
Digital collage, inkjet printed tunnel book, 2025
Rare Books Collection
“World of the Book returns in 2026 with State Library Victoria's largest ever tribute to women writers, alongside hundreds of extraordinary Australian and international works from the State Collection. Now in its 21st year, Australia’s longest running and most-loved book exhibition brings together more than 400 rare, remarkable and historically significant items from c. 2000 BCE to today, many on public display for the first time.
…
Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison have been creating art together since 1999. The fusion of their words, collages, drawings and prints has forged a unique aesthetic. Their work as wildlife carers and environmental activists guides their art practice and daily lives. Using the theatricality of the tunnel-book form (their first use of this mode), this work draws the viewer in:
‘[It’s] an empty forest, in which no wildlife roamed... As the red curtain falls, it dawns, the stage is empty, the set abandoned... How will we, any of us, know what we have lost, when entire ecosystems crumble?’”
(From World of the Book, State Library Victoria (SLV) website, and the How will they know there’s no-one left label alongside our artists’ book.)
To our great delight, you can now see an edition of our tunnel book, How will they know there’s no-one left (2025), on display in the recent rehang of the World of the Book, in the company of Jane Austen, Octavia Butler, Agatha Christie, Toni Morrison, and Virginia Woolf.
Plans are now afoot to create another tunnel book, and also, perhaps, our interpretation of a cobweb valentine (also known as beehives, paper cages, and flower cages), with a “cobweb” cut from a piece of paper by making a pattern of concentric circles. By leaving attachment points at various intervals, the cobweb, once pulled upwards by a thread, or sometimes a type of paper handle shaped like a butterfly, say, reveals a hidden image, or valentine. The gentle movement, the reveal, and the fiddly nature all appeal.
“As a cover, the cobweb formed the perfect sanctuary to enclose a private message that could only be revealed when the recipient of the card carefully pulled up the thread, causing the concentric circles of the web to rise and magically expose its hidden compartment.”
(Valentine’s Day and the Romance of Cobwebs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET))
Anonymous (American or British, 19th century). Cobweb valentine, 1830–40. Watercolor, cut tissue on board, Diameter: 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm). The MET, New York.
We’ve also recently added a few new prints and a foldable zine to our online store.
First up, created especially for the RMIT University School of Art 2026 Print Exchange Folio, a print which slots together two different ways to reveal two different scenes, and incorporates elements from SLV’s edition of Eleazar Albin’s A natural history of English insects, London, 1720. Looking to gain a new way of knowing is our fourth print for the RMIT Print Exchange Portfolio, and we love taking part in this annual event, when we can, to create a 20cm X 20cm scene.
A natural history of English insects, for those curious, includes one hundred vibrantly coloured plates that capture the lifecycle of insects “curiously engraven from life”, with each plate dedicated to an important patron, almost half of which were female subscribers.
You’ll find a couple of our artists’ proofs available in our online store.
In continued celebration of the intelligence and beauty of the more-than-human, you can find artists’ proofs of Chatter, rattle, Noddy terns overhead, created for the 2024 Print Exchange Folio, also available through our online store. The title is drawn from the call type of Noddy terns (Anous stolidus), and the messages they send to each other.
Finally, at long last, The line between earth & sky, which was released into the wild at the 2026 NGV Melbourne Art Book Fair, joins the line up. Lay claim to an edition and have fun folding your own paper mountain.
A 26cm X 34cm (folded to 13cm X 17cm in proportion), full-colour zine, with a hand-cut elements, it can be folded several ways to form a mountain peak. It was inspired by The Mountains Are Calling…, an exhibition for World Book Night 2026 at the Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol, which was in turn inspired by Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland. “In that disturbed and uncertain world,” Shepherd said of writing The Living Mountain, “it was my secret place of ease.”
Nancy Rosin, Unpacking a Box of Love, The MET
The Mountains Are Calling…, a 2026 exhibition for World Book Night 2026, Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol
Image credit: Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Looking to gain a new way of knowing (detail), 2026
