Minnesota Centre for Book Arts

I received an email to say that the MCBA had chosen the five finalists for its inaugural MCBA book arts prize, so I went and had a look at the exhibition website and the work is just lovely. It was good to see how many Australian artists entered: out of 110 entries from 10 countries I counted 11 entries from 10 Australian artists, which was excellent representation in a competition that was obviously dominated by American artists, and I think it shows the strength of book arts in Australia.

The website shows all of the entries and they present a fascinating mix of styles. One of my favourites, though, is Sue Anderson and Gwen Harrison's Quaranta Australis, a technically difficult and hauntingly beautiful book about the Quarantine Station in Sydney's harbour that processed incoming migrants. I hope they won't mind me including a small picture of it here because it is just so beautiful.



Quaranta Australis






I must make a mental note that next time I see the MCBA prize call for entries perhaps I could put some work in...