The Art of the Book

By /

I have a new exhibition on show at the Toowong Library. The Art of the Book is a collection of my paintings on books and altered books. The works share an emphasis on narrative and as books, they come with an inherent connection to storytelling. Thematically, they are a microcosm of an actual library, because their subject matter varies wildly from politics to landscape, history and Dr Who.

Here are some images from the show. Please come along and see the works while they are at Toowong. The show runs until the end of August 2015.

Carousel | Acrylic paint on book.

Images of circus and fairground recur in Nicole’s work, the places where our imaginations run wild and where our dreams live.

The Magical Clown | Collage, acrylic paint and metallic leaf on book.

This evocative occult image, with it’s intimations of magic spells, comes from a collection of occultism found in a remainders bookshop called “Book Off” in Tokyo.

Weeping Angel | Polymer clay, collage and mixed media.

We are as culturally bound together in contemporary society by shared televisual fictions as we once were by literature. Weeping Angel is an expression of one of our most surprisingly resilient stories.

Weird Fish | Shellac, acrylics and oil paints on books.

The idea that water creatutres might worship the moon came from Maleny painter Peter Hudson. These water creatures evolved from pictures in a medieval manuscript.

Twa Corbies | Acrylic paint and charcoal on book.
The ancient Scottish ballad, Twa Corbies, tells of two crows in a field, surveying the abandoned body of a knight in a ditch, and deciding which part to choose for dinner (his bonny blue e’en, or eyes) and which part to line their nest with (his gowden hair).
The Dragonflies | Acrylic paint on book.
Some artworks are a direct response to the book at hand, and the book’s original title sparked an exploration of winged cut-outs and the use of book pages for paper art.
The Whitlams | Collage and acrylic paint on book.
The imagery of orthodox saints has been appropriated to depict two giants of Australian social and political history.