---

Between us, the Archive at the Centre for Fine Print Research and Bower Ashton Library at UWE, Bristol have been collecting artists’ books and zines by Melbourne based artists Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison since 2008. Between them, Gracia & Louise have created 200+ beautiful artists’ books and zines since 2000 as part of their collaborative practice. “We are besotted with paper for its adaptable, foldable, cut-able, concealable, revealing nature. In our artists’ books, prints, zines, drawings, and collages too, we use an armoury of play, humour, and perhaps the poetic and familiar too, with the intention of luring you in.”

Sadly, we are still unable to welcome the public back into the library at the moment, so we thought – why not invite some artists who are physically far away to have an exhibition that we can all see online. As Gracia & Louise have such a well thought out and informative website with images and texts on each of their books we invited them to have a remote residency / exhibition showcasing some of their books held here in Special Collections and the CFPR Archives that you can visit on their website. You can also read their thoughts about making artists’ books and working with paper, drawing, and collage here.

During the timeframe of the exhibition here in Bristol, Sarah will be presenting a virtual talk on artists’ books and libraries for the Arlis/ANZ Biennial conference (Brisbane, 11-13 November): reimagining the material: artists’ books, printed matter, digital transformation, engagement. The talk will feature Gracia & Louise’s marvellous installation Looped, created specially for the La Trobe Reading Room at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. You can download a digital copy of the 16-page, pdf zine created for Looped here.

As always, Gracia & Louise have devised an extra and very thoughtful element for the Arlis/ANZ talk and their Bristol exhibition. They have produced two new zines for virtual conference attendees and exhibition visitors to download. “A zine about rodents, for amusement, and a zine about bats, for discussion.”

Download In the MET there is a “Pit from a Balanites tree with a hole caused by a rodent”, ca. 2381–2323 B.C., Old Kingdom, on view in Gallery 100, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, 2020 here.

Download We have been looking at you the wrong way round. We still do. To the gardeners of the sky, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, 2020 here.

Download the print and assembly instructions for both zines by Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison here.

You can read more about the inspiration for the two zines and see related images here.

Please do visit the links for each of the books listed below to find out more about them. Gracia & Louise can also be found on Twitter and Instagram, and their new creative showcase for works on paper and large-scale collages can be viewed at REEL space.

Gracia & Louise live studio visit for NGV Melbourne: watch a studio talk where Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison discuss their artists’ books, zines and collage work, for the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, October 2020, here.

List of books in this exhibition:

A Hemline of Sky, Forest, and Water Through Smoke (set, 2020)
view online

A vagary of impediments & a sneak of weasels (2009)
view online

Beneath the screen of closed eyelids (Port Said) 2013
view online

But I just got here a minute ago (2011)
view online

Disrupted and rumpled (2018)
view online

Good Evening, good evening. So nice of you to come all this way (2008)
view online

Here, There (2017)
view online

I think all the world is falling (2018)
view online

It was a familiar pattern (2017)
view online

PAINT OUT (2019)
view online

Ripples in the Open (2019)
view online

Salvaged Relatives (2015)
view online

Twelve months, an explorer (2014)
view online

Whose lights were now seen glittering (2012)
view online

*Physical books will be displayed in the library cabinets for students to see, but due to social distancing measures we cannot currently welcome visitors. We will be sharing the books with the public online via the links above and UWE Bristol Library’s Twitter feed. Up to date info can be found here.

UWE Bristol, City Campus at Bower Ashton, Kennel Lodge Road, Bristol BS3 2JT.