Paper Universe: The Book as Art
Date: Aug 2025 – May 2026
Location: State Library of NSW
Role: Exhibition Design
Brief: Display nearly 100 rarely seen artists’ books from the State Library’s collection—works ranging from 5 centimetres to 40 metres, by artists including Ed Ruscha, Judy Watson, and Bill Henson—across five thematic sections: Art, Nature, Civil, Identity, and Perception. The curator wanted the sections to feel connected and continuous rather than discrete.
Response: Artist books are notoriously difficult to display; they are objects designed to be held, turned, and explored. Placed under glass, they lose the quality that makes them what they are. My design response was to compensate spatially.
I created a maze-like environment to feel as tactile, interactive, and exploratory as possible. Built from semi-translucent screens made of Tyvek (a material that gives the feel of paper but with the strength to last a long-term public installation), each section was colour-coded to carry the curator’s thematic logic through the space while keeping transitions fluid. To evoke a sense of exploration and discovery, books were hidden within wall cavities and in small corner spaces. To allow for viewing of additional pages—when there were too many highlights to choose—I incorporated openable drawers, interactive screens, and seating benches for contemplating larger or emotionally impactful works.
Directional walls, subtly influencing visitor flow, were constructed from woven strips of SaveBoard (a sustainable material made from compressed, upcycled packaging), with exposed cut edges adding texture. While I had hoped to use this material more extensively, its application was limited following a collection care review of potential offgassing risks near the artworks.
A concertina wall led visitors down the hallway to the exhibition, and a makerspace for creating personal artist books was set up in the previously unused space past the entrance.
Outcome: An immersive, navigable environment that translated the tactile logic of the artist book form into a spatial experience—inviting the kind of slow, exploratory attention the works themselves demand.
