The ANU School of Art Edition + Artist Book Studio is a collaborative enterprise where visiting artists can work within the medium of printmaking and the artists’ book, no matter their original artistic field. The aim is to combine the interests and skills of the artist with the design and production skills of the E+ABS staff to produce work outside their ‘comfort zone’.

Dianne Fogwell has been Lecturer in Charge of E+ABS since its inception. She has taught at the ANU School of Art for over two decades. Her personal art practice straddles print, book and painting and she brings her skills as a master-printmaker and book designer to the work produced from the Studio.

Caren Florance is the Technical Officer and letterpress printer for the E+ABS. She is also a graphic designer and book artist.

Jan Brown is a sculptor whose primary material base is bronze. She taught life drawing and sculpture at the ANU School of Art for many years and was the first female Senior Lecturer.

Ian Templeman is head of Pandanus Books, the publishing division of the ANU Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. He has had several collections of poems published.

 

This book proposal had a design brief: it had to be small enough to fit on a shelf. There was, however, a lot of information to convey within such a small structure, with the needs of both authors to take into consideration. Ian Templeman, a writer and publisher, provided thoughtful, personal poetry and Jan Brown, a sculptor, provided a series of line images which related to the general theme of ‘Icarus’, but not directly to the poem itself. One needed space, the other needed movement. Jan’s drawings are very sequential, film-like, almost animated. Ian’s poem needs time to read and reflect. The double concertina was used to allow the text and images to enfold each other, inviting either an integrated or separate reading as the pages move outwards. The folds provide pauses for Ian’s text, and connection for Jan’s images. There is a marked use of light and dark for the two ‘wings’, and the choice of paper enhances this: creamy, textured paper for the text; light, almost tissue paper for the dark, sculptural blocks of colour holding the line image. The physical act of moving the pages outwards and inwards compels the reader to interact on a number of levels.

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