Troops Depart for War

It seems I'm still not ready to be finished with commenting on World War I.  

It came to my attention recently that the letters DIE are part of the word 'SOLDIER'.

I've made a few books about the unbelievable loss of life by soldiers serving in WW1 and I couldn't resist making a little zine using this.

I printed an A4 Kraft paper page with the word Soldier in murky green and highlighted the letters DIE in black.  I placed the words in columns like a battalion marching off to war.

The page was then folded and placed into a Kraft card cover onto which I 

glued an image of a WWI commemorative stamp which carries the words 'Troops Depart'.

I'd be delighted to send one to anyone who sends me their postal address.  You can contact me by email through my website. 

A Great Book Weekend at SLQ

A highly anticipated artists book event on the calendar is the yearly event at SLQ sponsored by the Siganto Foundation, and this year's event was better than ever.   This year introduced us to Amir Brito Cador and his presentation on other Brazilian book artists which was a real treat and quite inspiring.  It also introduced us to performances of artists books, and we heard about the projects of newly completed and current SLQ Fellows. It was a really great day and I was obviously so absorbed I didn't think to take even one photo!

The Artists Book Fair held on the Sunday was also hugely enjoyable and successful.  I loved seeing other people's books and sharing a table with my friend and collaborator Jack Oudyn.  We had a range of our own books, some collaborative books and Jack had lots of zines.  Once again I had such a great time mixing with people and talking about books that I didn't think to even take 

a photo of our table.

Thank goodness for Doug Spowart who did take lots of photos and he and Vicki Cooper have written up a well illustrated account of the two day event on their blog here.

There is also an aptly titled blog post (Artists Books Extravaganza) on the 

SLQ Australian Library of Art blog here.   

How fortunate we are to have the State Library of Queensland and it's support from the Siganto Foundation, and we hope these Siganto events and the associated Artists Book Fair will continue.

I had made a little booklet/zine for the day titled Makes no Sense.  I had received a pile of cards from the exhibition of my book Back to the Front in France.  The card had the photo positioned very low down with a huge white area above.  My friend Jack immediately folded it and the image appropriately went to the back, so I used the cards as covers to make 20.  I had enough cards to paint ink onto the glossy surface of others and scratch into it with an etching needle 

to make some of the pages. 

Of course it's about WWI hence the title, and some of the pages are placed upside down or sideways.

Photos of the first few pages below.  

Zine give-away

It's taken longer than I thought it would, but I've finally made the companion zine to my first zine Guess who's coming to dinner?  That zine was recently purchased by Melbourne University Special Collections. Some of you may have noticed that it contained male artists only.

The new zine Guess who's not cooking dinner? involves guessing the female artists included at the dinner table.

If you'd like a copy of this zine you can email your postal address to me through the Contacts section of my website.   There are still copies of the first zine available too if anyone wants one.

Zine Give-away

After receiving zines from Amanda, Jack and ronnie, and a lovely bookmark from Robyn, I've made my first zine.  It's called Guess who's coming to dinner and involves guessing the identity of the included artists - some are easy, some more difficult and one quite obscure.

So if you'd like to receive one just email your postal address to me by going to the 'Contact' section of my website http://www.visualartist.info/helenmalone and you'll receive one in the mail.