Book of nature management
Artist
Mueller, Helen
Production date
2004
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Object Detail
Title
Book of nature management
Production date
2004
Medium
blackbutt bark, plastic straps, copper crimp clasps and oil stick
Measurements
15.2 x 11.0 x 8.0 cm
Object type
Interpretive text
"Nature seems more and more something to be managed: cut to size and pre-packaged ready to consumption as raw material, tourist destination, backdrop. Nature is analysed, measured, classified, written up. Nature is imagined, represented, projected. I struggled with curled, resistant, dry pieces of Blackbutt bark, unfurling, cutting, and binding the reluctant pages into a book: Nature subdued. Task finished at 16.29 h. Helen Mueller My interest in artists’ books has mostly manifested itself as ‘stacks’ or what I call ‘unbound books’. I have made quite a few of them over the years. Mostly they are pages printed and stacked in a way that form a pattern or image down the side. I attach a few for your information. So this book is a little along these lines, except I let the bark do the talking and only added the word ‘nature’ and time of completion (in dot matrix form as was commonly used on timber products in timber yards) on the first ‘page’ as a kind of industrial/management reference. 2017
Credit line
Mackay Regional Council Art Collection, purchased 2004.
Accession number
2005.32