Acts of Resistance
Occupy 2012 - my artist books using posters from the 2011 democracy protest posters sourced in Athens, Greece and manifestos of the ‘Occupy, movement.
What is an artist book? Does it look like an artwork, sculpture, object or book? Or maybe all of the above and more.
I’m at a three day artist book conference in Mackay, central Queensland which is being held in conjunction with the 2025 Libris artist book award. Over 100 artist book makers have gathered for the conference to exhibit and talk about this strange art entity that defies classification.
One of the definitions that I can come up with is that the artist book is an act of resistance. It asks of us to consider narrative, structure, materiality and even performance as a way to access the meaning within its ‘pages’.
Some artist books on exhibition for the Libris awards and in the artists book fair are made of Perspex, fabrics, plastic, and paper sourced from rubbish bins, computer printouts or had been thrown out in floodwaters and left to dry in the elements. Some are stitched together, some hang as scrolls some are folded, torn up and reconfigured as collage. The range and scope of the artist books on exhibition and discussed by presenters was limited only by the makers’ imagination.
One of the judges of the Libris awards, Ana Estrada, said that artist books required radical acts of slowing down and sitting with the complexity of life’s paradoxes. Artist books from the 60 finalists exhibited for the award addressed themes such as attention to the natural world, community and collaborations as well as the process of making and the structure as a way to perform the book.
One of the books which caught my attention was by Cobargo artist Rhonda Ayliffe whose home town was ravaged by the 2019 New Years Eve bushfires. She was active in her community working towards establishing the Cobargo Bushfire Resilience Centre and used the stacks of funding submission papers and reports in her artist books, folding them into houses which referenced all the houses that were burnt in the fire.
It was just one of the many ways that artists demonstrated they were transforming trauma, personal and political experiences into artworks as artist books. To my mind these are acts of resistance, empowering people with hope and the resilience to make art while all around seems to be in crisis. Inspiring stuff!
Resilio 2025 by Rhonda Ayliffe - finalist in the 2025 Libris award
