B.

Care Package (Part 3)

Behind the scenes

And so now that you've heard the story of the mystery black box that turned up on our doorstep, and the big blow-up bunny inside it, and the fact Jim Barr and Mary Barr have given it to the Gallery to put some bounce in our eventual re-opening celebrations, it's time something else got mentioned.

There's another box.

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

This one also comes bearing gifts from the Barrs to Christchurch Art Gallery, and those gifts'll lend strength to a little-known but increasingly interesting slice of the CAG's collections – namely, our artists' books.

Among the thirty-five or so items in the new cache are things by Giovanni Intra, Simon Denny, John Barnett and Lesley Kaiser, Daniel Malone and, well, see (and read) for yourself....

Some lapidary scalpel-work by Patrick Pound...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

An unwrapping of the body (poetry with pictures) by Joanna Paul...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

An ultra-rare string-bound 'McCatalogue' by Ronnie van Hout....

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

From Michael Smither, some waves...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

And quickly caught buildings...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

And plans for shoring up New Plymouth sand dunes...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

There's New Zealand sliced into 'four bits of fish' by Warwick Freeman...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

Three books by et al., inscribed and encrypted (shelve them between phantasy and philosophy)...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

And another...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

And then by the same artist/s in an earlier incarnation (L. Budd), an early bookwork that's really numerous works, aptly titled 'What constitutes originality?' (dedication: 'TO HANK, A good critic, a good friend...')...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

Then a walk on the wild side with Stuart Page ("INGREDIENTS: SEX, BOOZE, CIGS, DOPE...")...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

Some classic Killeen, head and hand...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

Less-is-more music by Julian Dashper...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

Lines taken for a walk by John Reynolds...

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

And finally (don't they give the red lantern to the rider at the back of the bike race?), Judy Chicago meets Georgia O'Keefe by way of Showgirls and Crazy Rick's Discount Warehouse in this electrokitsch embellishment by Judy Darragh of Merylyn Tweedie's 1988 Masters Thesis....

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

All photos by John Collie

It doesn't bite. In fact, if you want to get to grips with it or any other books in the collection, you can do so by making an appointment with the CAG library -- just as soon as a big neighbouring building's been demolished and we're all back where we want to be.