UWE Bristol, School of Creative Arts,
Department of Art and Design
Looks@books
curated by Jan Davis and Stephen Spurrier
24th October - 24th November 2007
This exhibition in the culmination of a dialogue between artists who make books that which has been underway throughout 2007.
Looks@books is an exhibition of artists’ books from two Australian Universities and has been curated by Jan Davis and Stephen Spurrier who teach in the printmaking departments of Southern Cross University and the University of Southern Queensland respectively. The two Universities are a four-hour drive apart but they share a number of similarities. Both are located in regional cities, both have visual arts programs with strong printmaking studios, both teach innovative approaches to bookmaking, and importantly they have University libraries that are interested in artists’ books. Southern Cross University also hosts a national artists’ book prize and has a growing collection of artists’ books housed in their University library.
Two earlier manifestations of Looks@books have enabled students to exhibit their books for their peers in their partner University Library. This exhibition at the University of the West of England extends the reach of the project to an International audience.
The books were selected because they had an innovative understanding of the book form (as in Alex Isaacson’s ‘Group of Small Animal Books’ or Heidi Evans’ ‘Suture I’), a demonstrated capacity to manage the problems of binding (as in Sarah Nolan’s ‘Butterfly’, a strong narrative sense (as in Joanna Kambourian’s ‘Postmarks I’), a sense of humour (as in Rebekah Evans’ ‘young David’), or simply because Jan and Stephen appreciated them. We hope that the UWE audience does too.
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