Artist Catherine Mc Cue Boes

Catherine Mc Cue Boes Book as art: 30 years in the making Gallery One Bundaberg Regional Gallery Exhibition Dates: 14/05/2014 - 29/06/14 Exhibition opening: Friday 6 June, 5:30pm to 7:30pm 

In Brief  Bundaberg-based artist Catherine McCue Boes will show a retrospective of 30 years of producing handmade artist books that cover a wide range of inspirational points such as literature, poetry, stories, science, travel, environment and biography.  Often produced as small editions or as unique, these works are narrative driven others whimsical and playful and still others are dark and moody.      Forty plus handmade artist books will be on display, alongside selected images from within the pages of the books and in addition a selection of artists books form Catherine’s private  collection will be displayed.

Artist books What makes an artist book? Artist books are an expressive medium, often in a great variety of forms these books take time to produce and for some, even longer to appreciate.   Some may find artists’ books hard to comprehend as a work of art, the artist book, after all, is at a disadvantage when compared to other art forms, for example a painting.  The artists’ book by its very nature usually has to be opened or even handled to be appreciated, other art forms may be displayed in their entirety, whereas the artist book contains many aspects that are neither easy to display nor value. Artist books are not a unique idea, the practice of incorporating images and text stems back to William Blake (1757 -1827) .     Many modern masters, such as Picasso, Leger and Kokoschka to name only a few, presented and participated in the making of artist books.  Artist books over the past century have become more than a collection of pages in sequence, with or without text, ar