Happily Ever After, 'Happily Ever After'...

The time has come for Happily Ever After to be lovingly dismantled and the last of the books returned to their writer and makers...

We just wanted to take the time to say thank you to the venues for hosting the show - John Paynter Gallery, Artspace Mackay, Manly Library and the Auchmuty Library at the University of Newcastle.
In particular the generous support of cultural staff at each location:

Kerrie Coles for accepting our initial proposal, and Lance Turner, Belinda Howden, Emily Roberts and the volunteers at the Lock-up and John Paynter Gallery Newcastle for hosting the first incarnation of the exhibition.

Michael Wardell, Anna Thurgood, Alicia Stevenson
, Billie-Jo Obst and the staff at Artspace Mackay for the wonderful install and finding a space for the exhibition in their program.

Ruth Raymond, Wendy Ford and their team at Manly Library for their fabulous integrated activity program and handling of the exhibition.

Gillean Shaw, and her team at the University Gallery for their facilitation of the Auchmuty incarnation of the show, especially Eliza Adam who helped us install the works. 

Thank you to the contributors to the opening events, Dr Caroline Webb, The Hunter Writers Centre, Maike Strichow, Noelle Janaczewska, Talya Rubin, Tallulah Cunningham, Monica Oppen, Beverley Seiver, David Hampton, Linda Swinfield, Gillean Shaw, Niomi Sands, Stephanie Kaul, Eleanor Jane Robinson, Pamela See, Pamela Poulson, Sylvia Ray and Anne-Maree Hunter, Mark Nolasco, Sprocket Roasters... there are surely people we have neglected to mention by name, but thank you for your kind support.

Thank you also, to the audiences for the works, and the gallery and library visitors who took the time to engage with the artists books.

Most of all, thank you to the artists and writers themselves for the generous (and lengthy) loan of their wonderful work to the show in each of its different guises. It has been a pleasure to be involved in the show and discover so many artists who share a love for the artist book form.


Best wishes and thank you from Caelli and Helen.

Auchmuty Incarnation of HEA still on display

The edited version of the Happily Ever After show is still on display in the Auchmuty Library at the University of Newcastle for a little longer if you wanted to catch it...

Happily ever After Catalogue from Blurb

If you would like a copy of the Happily Ever After catalogue, they are available at cost price via the self-publishing site, Blurb.

 Blurb link to the catalogue

photo:Oz in OH


Happily Ever After at Auchmuty Library, University of Newcastle

The Happily Ever After team is pleased to announce that an edited version of the exhibition is currently on display at the University of Newcastle's Auchmuty Library. Yes, the exhibition has finally returned to the place it started: Newcastle, Australia. To check out the exhibition, and the exhibition catalogue, head up to the Short Loans section and look for the work in display cases. Happily Ever After will be at the library for approximately three months.

Thank you to the University Gallery for organising this exhibition!

Happily Ever After catalogues are now available from Blurb. To order one, just go to http://au.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3718117

Happily Ever After opens at Manly Library

Walking through the doors of Manly Library, one is greeted by an intriguing trail of red paper petals, carefully cut out and stuck to the floor. Today, with our gaze firmly fixed to the floor, we wandered along and found some great things to see and do: a shadow puppet play of Rumpelstiltskin by David Murray and Theo Stephens; zine demonstrations by the funky Chris Tamm; printmaking demonstrations by Annie Day and Rosanna Jurisevic of the Warringah Printmakers Studio. And throughout the space, in glass cabinets, are the wonderful artists' books from the Happily Ever After exhibition.

One of the great things about today's event is that the demonstrations ranged from the street to the salon, with Chris' zines firmly in the blue corner of graphic art and comic book heroes (and heroines), and Annie and Rosanna's red corner representing the fine arts, and referencing (amongst other things) traditional Japanese printmaking techniques and innovative new low toxicity/green printing processes.

David and Murray's shadow puppets brought the oral traditions of fairy tales to life with a great version of the traditional tale which mesmerised both kids and adults. Before the show, various kids tried to peer under the stage curtain to see how the magic was done, and afterwards the same children clustered around to inspect the puppets. The miller's daughter was a cocktail sipping Vogue silhouette (in circa 1940 ball gown) while Rumpelstiltskin was everything an evil little leprechaun should be: spiky, deranged and agile. But the stand out shadow puppet wasn't even human, or faery: it was a cleverly constructed spinning wheel, for turning straw into gold, whose wheel actually span.

We can report that just next to the library is a cute little cafe, Cafe Hum, which does a thoroughly decent sandwhich or toastie and has nice staff. If you haven't been to Manly recently, make the Happily Ever After exhibition your excuse to check it out. We also enjoyed the Manly Council's Fair Trade market stalls (what a great initiative!), the local sourdough bakery, stunning weather and a ferry ride blessed by blue skies and racing yachts.

Happily Ever After is at Manly Library until January 29th, 2012.

Happily Ever After event at Manly Library

Join us on Saturday 3rd of December at Manly Library, from 10am-1pm, to celebrate the opening of Happily Ever After, a group exhibition of artists' books with a fairy tale theme. Manly Library have organised a great program of events, including printmaking demonstrations with artists from Warringah Printmakers Studio, artists' talks by Monica Oppen and Jan Melville, Chris Tamm will host a zine workshop (bookings essential), and there will be fairy tale readings and shadow puppets.

For more information, please click here for the media release. Hopefully see you there!

Happily Ever After at Manly Library

The Happily Ever after team is extremely pleased to announce that the exhibition will be displayed at Manly Library later this year. At this stage dates are still being worked out, but we expect that after the show closes at Artspace Mackay on Friday 28th October, it will be on display at Manly sometime in December 2011.

Manly Library is another great venue for Happily Ever After, having launched an artists' book collection and award earlier this year, and with sympathetic display facilities. Click here for more information about Manly Library's artists' books collection. The collection features some books (including works by Happily Ever after participants Anne-Maree Hunter, Janis Nedela, Peter Lyssiotis and Monica Oppen) that may be viewed online.