A SERIES OF FIVE ARTISTS’ BOOKS, 2009
1/ In search of a time the heart does not recall (Souvenir of Johannesburg)
2/ Through purgatory passed, and then there was Bombay (Photogravure views of Bombay)
3/ Seen and later forgotten (Souvenir of Niagara Falls)
4/ Passing through, undetected for the time being (A Souvenir of Bangor)
5/ Avant et Après (Dixmude, Before and After the War of 1914–1918)
1/ Gracia Haby
In search of a time the heart does not recall (Souvenir of Johannesburg)
2009
37 page artists’ book, unique state, featuring collage elements and pencil across the pages of Souvenir of Johannesburg, including the suburbs and mines of the Rand
Exhibited as part of By This Unwinking Night (2012) and A key to help make your own world visible (2009).
It includes the collages,
Finding it all too much
I've seen the four corners and they are all the same. All.
Parallel with buildings. Parallel with the acacias too.
In search of a time the heart does not recall
From up here the sky is open and it is blue
Once more eager for the old joys
Chances are, at this moment, I am thinking of someone else
I am listening to the city below
A place to watch the stars above shine from their balconies
Parted from my beloved
On this kind of day, I had a relapse (The Hospital)
In search of a snug nest
Slowly, the streets come awake once more
I swear, all assembled were in perfect unison
The morning is in the palm of my hands, or so it feels (Twist Street)
Like a bird, my lovely one, like a bird in flight
A kind shade is cast
Quietly waiting (Doornfotein Station)
I believe I've been led astray
All okay
The world becomes too narrow
On doorstep they landed like a song
The dawn crept up on me once more
With one eye looking back, the other forward
Desiring, on cracked earth, a little freedom
In search of a little birdsong (Boksburg Lake)
Timidly setting forth
Easy passage (Oxen Wagon Crossing a drift)
Do they think it a fable? (Florida Lake)
Passing undetected for the now
Take your place by stream or waterfall
In search of something else
For the mountain I am headed
I woke with a sigh (At Underground Work in a Gold Mine)
Birds return to the inky shores of shadows
Face forward
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RELATED LINK,
ADVICE FOR THOSE CURIOUS, EXHIBITION TEXT FOR A KEY TO HELP MAKE YOUR OWN WORLD VISIBLE, CRAFT VICTORIA
RELATED POSTS,
PAGE.PRINT.POST
MARCH HARES, MARCH DAYS, WAITING AT THE STATION
UNWINKING
SPEAKING, NATTERING, CHATTERING
TO LEAF THROUGH
THE DAY PASSED WITHOUT MISHAP
2/ Gracia Haby
Through purgatory passed, and then there was Bombay (Photogravure views of Bombay)
2009
24 page artists’ book, unique state, featuring collage elements and pencil across twenty-four photogravure views of Bombay (Thacker & Co Ltd booksellers & c., Bombay)
Exhibited as part of A key to help make your own world visible (2009), this artists’ book is now in the collection of University of Melbourne Library.
(Travellers, Mumbai, India was formally called Bombay. “In 1534, the Portuguese captured the islands and called the place Bom Bahia, meaning ‘the good bay’, which the English pronounced Bombay.” (Bombay: History of a City, British Library))
3/ Gracia Haby
Seen and later forgotten (Souvenir of Niagara Falls)
2009
16 page artists’ book, unique state, featuring collage elements and pencil across the pages of Souvenir of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada (Dominion Series View Book)
This artists’ book made especially for the exhibition A key to help make your own world visible (2009), and later exhibited at Latrobe Regional Gallery as part of By This Unwinking Night (2012).
4/ Gracia Haby
Passing through, undetected for the time being (A Souvenir of Bangor)
2009
18 page artists’ book, unique state, featuring collage elements and pencil across the pages of A Souvenir of Bangor, a book of engravings by the Photochrom Co. Ltd., 121 Cheapside, London
This artists’ book was made for and exhibited as part of A key to help make your own world visible (2009).
Across the pages of a The Dainty Series publication of photographic views of Bangor, littered with objects manmade and from the natural world, characters explore the terrain beyond the frame. Tails tickle, arms stretch, and Snowshoe rabbits from shoes do leap. Buildings are reshuffled on the Recreational Grounds in plain view, the Menai Suspension Bridge is witness to a circus-worthy performance in the middle of the day, and bats chase fish (or was that the other way around?) in the air. This is a souvenir of Bangor.
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RELATED LINKS,
THE ARTIST AND THE BOOK, MATERIALITY, NUMBER 1: BOOK, PINKNANTUCKET PRESS, 2012
INSTALLING AT CRAFT VICTORIA
AT EVERY TURN
5/ Gracia Haby
Avant et Après (Dixmude, Before and After the War of 1914–1918)
2009
Ten page artists’ book, unique state, featuring collage elements and coloured pencil across the pages of a copy of Dixmude (Noordstraat Dixmude), Avant et Après la guerre 1914–1918 | Before and After the War of 1914–1918 | Voor en na den oorlog 1914–1918
Emerging from the ruins, an artists’ book featuring before and after images of Dixmude (Diksmuide), Belgium. This artists' book was made for and exhibited as part of A key to help make your own world visible (2009).
It was later shown alongside other artists’ books we made especially for the group exhibition Shelf Life (2011).
