correlations between independent publishing and artists book practice. To what degree can/does independent publishing‘s engagement with the field of artists book shape creative practice within the field, and inform the emerging critical discourse on it?
Sarah Bodman, Marian Crawford & Tim Mosely

This project was supported by the Griffith Centre for Creative Arts Research. It has generated a small collection of books that identifies intersections between independent publishing and artists book practices, and places both within the framework of print culture. Its primary outcome is the collection and a catalogue documenting the collection supported by critical essays by S Bodman, M Crawford and T Mosely. Initially shown in the "... & So"  exhibition at Griffith Library QCA 2017 the collection will be toured nationally and internationally. Venues to date;

Griffith Library Queensland College of Art part of abbe 2017
IMPACT 10 - Santanda, Spain, 2018
Bower Ashton Library cases, UWE, Bristol, UK, 2018
The Firestation Print Studio, Armadale, Vic, Australia, June 2019

Galleries, libraries and research collections interested in showing the small collection of books or receiving a copy of the 3 volumed catalogue are encouraged to contact dc3p.

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Within an Australian context artists books are commonly associated with fine arts practice and the aesthetics of autographic printmaking. The striated machine aesthetic of printed matter from the design, printing and publishing industries are far less prevalent. This point was highlighted by Dr Amir Brito Cadôr (Professor of Graphic Arts at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil) during his keynote lecture at the State Library of Queensland's 2015 Siganto Foundation Artists Book Seminar. Cadôr’s observation was made in contrast to the Brazilian context of artists books, generally produced within the machine aesthetic of the commercial printing industry. He nominated the scarcity of accessible printmaking studios in Brazil as a significant factor for this quality.

The recently established Art Book Fairs at Sydney's Artspace and the NGV have placed the Australian context under a new scrutiny, one that challenges both the "fine art" and "independent publishers" positions in the field. What these fairs make particularly evident within contemporary independent publishing practices is a highly intuitive engagement with printing that designers are pursuing in counterpoint to the tight space of commercial publishing.

Books by the following artists / designers make up the collection purchased for the project.

Stephen Fowler, Cosmic Forces
Georgia Maitland, limbo
Louis Lim, An Opened Letter
Marian Crawford, Picturing the Island
Ana Paula Estrada de Isolbi, Memorandum
Sarah Bodman, GM Future
Dominic Ford, Ramps, Pools, Ponds and Pipes
Christopher Day, New Reading Order
Thomas Raat, An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth and More…
The Codex Foundation, <usus>, typography, and artists’ books
Nuala Gregory, Exploded View
Catherine de Zegher, the (hemi)cycle of leaves and paper
Erin Coates, Kinesphere
Jan Novák, DUST gamebook
indigenous action media, Accomplices not allies
Mark Wingrave, A journey from one reality to another
Bruno Munari, Seeking comfort in an uncomfortable chair
Brad Freeman, AK Milroy & T Mosely, Trumped up empathy
Adolfo Aranjuez & Nina Read, Fragmented (# two)
Michael Phillips, The Democracy of Disease
Sarah Nicholls, Wipe the Slate
Rose Nolan, ENOUGH
Bruno Munari, Libro illeggibile
Leonard McDermid, Twelve Sea Pictures
Elizabeth Newman, Whereof one cannot speak…
Bartolomeo Celestino, Surface Phenomena (120416-150608)
Katherine Moline & P Hall, Experimental Thinking / Design Practices
Uta Schneider & Ulrike Stoltz, mindmap
Lyn Ashby, Wall to Wall
Angela Gardner & Caren Florance, The future, un-imagine

books about books by artists
was exhibited in 2017 at Griffith University Library, QCA part of abbe 2017

Tim Mosely’s collection of books on artists book practice,
textured by the haptic, print culture and autographic printmaking.

“Touch, the most complex of our senses, can be passive or active. Our touch of books is primarily passive, facilitating visual reading. Within the emerging field of haptic aesthetics, this passive act is termed a ‘tactile touch’ and is performed by the hand in service of the visual and aural senses. In counterpoint to this, the ‘haptic touch’ is active. As the quintessential relational sense, it moves over, across’ and around surfaces’ getting to know them intimately. The haptic touch plays a central role in how this collection was and continues to be gathered.

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari assert that no book has an object or a subject other than how it is made. The significance then of artists books lies in the relationships that are found or developed with how they were produced. The texture of this collection focuses attention to the long relationship between the haptic and books by artists, a critical concern for discourse within the emerging critical field of artists books.”
Tim Mosely.

image by Rebekka Evans

Inflection; an exhibition of artists books & prints
from Griffith Centre for Creative Arts Research,
shown in 2016 at the Centre for Fine Print Research,
University of West England, Bristol, UK

Blair Coffey, Rebecca Evans, Andrew Frost, Chris Hagen, David Jones, Tess Mehonoshen, Tim Mosely, the Night Ladder Collective, David Nixon, Kellie O’Dempsey, Naomi O’Reilly, Glen Skien & Erica Dunkley, Jonathan Tse.

The diversity of artists books creative and research practice has for some time now exceeded the scope of any single research project investigating the field. This diversity will continue expanding as the material book, adopted by artists of all fields, continues to attract the attention of academic disciplines as well as the public. Inflection exemplifies this diversity at the same time as clarifying that print culture and the haptic are shaping the artists books research focus at GCCAR. Produced by staff and post graduate students from Queensland College of Art, the books in this exhibition are printed, drawn, painted, altered, cut and set, and resist being summed up by a passing glance. They remain opaque unless you touch them, spend time with them; and unless you let them affect you as you affect them.