Page by Page

I love paper, I love books, I love words.

Put them altogether and I'm in heaven.

I also adore bookbinding and while I've done a ton of it, I have never - and will never - come close to the skill level of one of New Zealand's best bookbinders, Michael O'Brien of Oamaru.

I called into Michael's studio in Tyne Street - in the town's Historic Precinct - when I travelled south in the middle of last year. It's a time warp, a place where you step back into a world of traditional handcrafts. Michael himself is the master of retro-dressing and is usually found in a kilt, or perhaps in classic Edwardian dress....his favourite era.

Michael did a traditional bookbinding apprenticeship at Auckland Public Library and then, in 1986, he headed for Europe to hone his skills. He worked 60 hours a week in a traditional British bindery and took classes in the evenings, with some of the United Kingdom's finest binders. Returning to New Zealand in 1988, he set up business in Auckland, before later shifting south to the calm of historic Oamaru.

Getting people to recognize the value of the traditional bookbinding craft has taken time and perseverence but Michael has never compromised on producing the finest books made from the finest papers. While some of his most extravagant leather-bound books, made from archival paper can sell for up to $600 each, he also produces a wide range of stunning books made from recycled paper, which generally sell for much less. Understandably, he now has a big waiting list for his custom made books and he must be pleased to know that the publicity he's received for his own efforts and craftsmanship, have helped spawn a renewed interest in this ancient craft.

I have a cabinet filled with handmade books - some my own but many crafted by traditional bookbinders and artists from around the world. Some are filled with content; some are limited editions; some are completely one-off works of art; and many are beautiful, 'empty books' that I've been unable to resist - reserved for that "special project." Among them are a handful of Michael O'Brien books. It's a collection that keeps growing.

Dress Circle - A History of New Zealand Fashion

All fashion images shown supplied by Random House New Zealand.

All are works depicted in the book, from Deborah and Mark Smith, Collection of Hawke's Bay Musuem and Art Gallery Before 1940, New Zealand was a nation of home sewers and imported fashion styles but then, our own independent fashion designers began to emerge. You can now read all about our colourful fashion design journey in The Dress Circle, an exquisitely illustrated book co-authored by three New Zealand museum professionals: Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, director of Hawke's Bay Museum and Art Gallery, Claire Regnault, Senior Curator at The Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa and Lucy Hammonds, curator at Hawke's Bay Museum and Art Gallery.

Garments from the Hawke's Bay Museums Trust Collection play a starring role in Dress Circile: New Zealand Fashion Since 1940, a book that spreads itself over seven decades of creative endeavour. All three authors have been closely involved with the museum's fashion and textiles collection - Claire Regnault formerly worked as a curator at HBMAG and Douglas and Lucy are both currently based there - and many of the garments photographed in the book, showcase the diversity and quality of the museum's own collection.

The writing/curation trio - all with extensive experience in fashion and textiles -spent many hours fossicking in photo archives, delving into records, leafing through old magazines and interviewing key players to capture the full, rich story, which for many, will be a walk down memory lane. They relate the glamorous days of exclusive fashion parades in department stores like Milne & Choyce, Smith & Caughey, Kirkaldie & Staines and Ballantynes; they introduce early labels like El Jay and Miss Deb, moving through the years to Annie Bonza, Hullabaloo and Zephyr; and they catalogue the achievements of current high-street favourites like Karen Walker, Kate Sylvester and Zambesi and more.

The authors have 'lifted the skirts' of New Zealand fashion to reveal a tantalising collection of characters and personalities - a coutouriere who ran the infamous Ring Terrace brothel; Kiwi men baulking at the loss of cuff turn-ups during wartime rationing; the fashion impresario, who was spat on in Queen Street for her "provocative" dress sense; and one of our greatest All Blacks, who had his own women's fashion label. I always find those stories about the people, those everyday vignettes in any industry or profession, the most engaging. They shine a light on people, places and professions and give us a deeper understanding of the business in question.

Lloyd Jenkins, Regnault and Hammonds have left no stone unturned and for all the personable, amusing anecdotes, there is an equal weight of scholarship. They've deftly explored the fashion industry inside out, always putting it into the broader social and commercial context. There is discussion centred on the emergence of our design-led clothing industry, the creative processes of design and the knowledge, methods and circumstances of production that has produced the goods. Everything is there - written into this handsome, fat volume that unbuttons 'a rich history of sharp business, textile production, colourful personalities, pioneering designers, government policies, radical reforms, the rag-trade communities, the fashion awards that make up our very distinctive fashion design culture.

The Dress Circle: New Zealand Fashion Design Since 1940 is published by Random House New Zealand (Godwit) and retails for NZ$75.

One White Book

I love the look of this new publication put together by New Plymouth's Govett Brewster Gallery which celebrates the gallery's landmark exhibition by Peter Robinson in 2008. Peter Robinson: Snow Ball Blind Time - the exhibition, marked only the second time the Govett Brewster had given over its entire gallery space to one artist. Occupying the entire 574 square metres of the gallery, Robinson's show took 18 months to create. The only other time one artist has been commissioned to create a single work for the entire gallery was in 1970, when Leon Narbey's Real Time took command of the building. This new book - more than an exhibition catalogue - traces Robinson's exploration of materials and ideas through the eight major projects since his formative ACK installation at Artspace, Auckland in 2006, which was seen as a pivotal change of direction in his artmaking practice. Born in Ashburton, Canterbury in 1966, Robinson currently lives in Auckland, where he is Associate Professor at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. He has held residencies in Germany and Australia, represented New Zealand at the 2001 Venice Biennale and was awarded the prestigious 2008 Walters prize for outstanding contributions to contemporary art in New Zealand for his work at ACK. The above book is now available through bookstores throughout New Zealand. www.govettbrewster.com

Harping on About Hedges

Have I mentioned lately how much I love a good hedge?

No? Then Let me redress that~!

I spent three days down in Southland last weekend and that's the perfect place to go 'hedge-hunting.' Located at the bottom of the South Island it's prone to very high winds and farmers all over the province have cultivated huge macrocarpa hedges to provide their animals with shelter. I snapped these three from the bus window as we were driving from Invercargill to Colac Bay - I loved the patterns formed by the die-back in the top image. I'll add these to my collection of hedge photos - now into its second 'edition.' I intend to maike a second hedge book soon - over the Christmas New Year period perhaps....that's a page from my first Small Book of Hedges up the top. Click on the word HEDGES in the label line below to see some of my favourite monster hedges in previous posts. Go on....you know you want to.

Len Lye - The Book

Image Courtesy Govett-Brewster Gallery & Len Lye Foundation

And so to another stunning publication from Govett-Brewster Gallery, this time in partnership with the Len Lye Foundation. Co-edited by the gallery’s Len Lye curator, Tyler Cann and poet, writer, critic, Wystan Curnow, ‘Len Lye,’ the book showcases one of New Zealand’s most inspirational and influential artists, throwing fresh light on the incredible diversity of his career. Len Lye (1901-1980) is best known in New Zealand as a kinetic sculptor but his international reputation was built around his experimental work in film. Poet, painter, experimental filmmaker and sculptor, Lye was born in Christchurch and travelled throughout the South Pacific and Australia, later working his passage to Britain on a steamship in 1926. He moved to New York in 1944. His work has featured in over 50 major exhibitions worldwide including in Paris’ Pompidou Centre, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and London’s Tate Modern. For this new look into his life and work – the most comprehensive visual presentation to date – over 1,000 new photographs were created and hundreds of them have been included in the book. The publication coincides with the largest and most comprehensive Len Lye exhibition ever, currently showing in the heart of Melbourne at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. In addition to all of that, I love the fact that Scottish poet, Alastair Reid declared Lye “the least boring person who ever lived.” Len Lye, the book is available through bookstores nationwide and it will be officially launched at the Govett-Brewster Gallery on September 25. http://www.govettbrewster.com/

In The Back Room

Christchurch Junk Store March 2009. Ajr

It's probably just as well we can't foretell our futures in any detail isn't it.

Today I lost myself at New Leaves, a fabulous new bookstore at Woodend, opened just last month. Owner, Claire sources all the books herself and there’s a fabulous collection of very classy volumes. Even better, it’s like walking into someone’s home and sitting down to read in a comfy corner. There’s a little wooden stool to reach high volumes in the cool, cave-like fiction section; there are colourful miniature chairs in the kids’ corner; and a choice of contemporary designer chairs or a kitchen set from the 1950s. The combination of books and smartly thought-out design elements is a winner – and so tempting; so tempting in fact I didn’t even try to resist. The top image here is a stunning book I fell in love with called "Space Craft - Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts," edited by Robert Klanten and Lukas Feireiss for Gestalten. www.newleaveswoodend.com.au

The Butterfly Book

Accordion Book by Ajr.

Butterflies

Gathered Together

Between Pages

For a Small Niece

Hedging My Bets

"A Small Book of Hedges." 2007 Ajr

Anyone who has been following this blog from the beginning will have noticed my interest in hedges. This is only the tip of the iceberg. I have hundreds of photographs of hedges – many gathered around New Zealand last year during my Frommers travel guide research; and many more photographed in Australia. To celebrate hedges, I compiled many of the best images into a book last year – “A Small Book of Hedges.” I thought that might cure me of this strange obsession. I was wrong. I’m still as drawn as ever to the strong, blocky, sculptural forms of a good hedge and I’m well on the way to having enough images for “A Small Book of Hedges II – The Sequel.”

A Small Book of Rugs

"A Small Book of Rugs" Ajr. 2007

Every so often my seemingly divergent passions for words, travel, pattern, colour, books, art and people come together in one happy little package. This is one example – a book I made last year after my Frommers New Zealand research trip. It’s called “A Small Book of Rugs,” and was inspired by my stay at Pencarrow in Queenstown. Pencarrow’s owners, the marvellously hospitable Bill and Kari Moers, have one of the most beautiful collections of Persian rugs I’ve ever seen. I’ve never been inclined to purchase Asian rugs myself – there’s something about all that pattern that makes me dizzy and fidgety; but when I walked into their upmarket B&B last year, I was blown away by the sheer mass and diversity of the imagery in their rug collection. I was transfixed and I kept thinking about them for weeks afterwards – hence this little book production – a fiddly labour of love that took me weeks to execute …..light relief to shutting myself away for months on end to write the 5th edition of Frommers New Zealand. www.pencarrow.net

Perfect Pages

Books from the Kelmscott Press showing as part of Morris & Co

Wellington’s Alexander Turnbull Library has kindly lent the Christchurch Art Gallery what is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding books ever printed. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer is a treasure to behold – around 600 pages of elaborate William Morris designs and over 80 illustrations. Produced by William Morris’s Kelmscott Press in 1896, it is part of the major exhibition Morris & Co now showing at the gallery. Kelmscott Press was William Morris’s last major artistic and design venture and between 1891 and 1898 it produced fifty-two titles. A small selection of Kelmscott Press books is part of the show - a little something for book-lovers like me to drool over.