Bookroom

In my creative practice I draw a lineage from the experiments with the book form in early 20th Century Modernism, through Conceptual art in the 1960s and Australian Post-Object practice in the 1970s, to contemporary self-published books and zines.

In my bookworks I explore intertwined ideas relating to the visual and textual, conceptual and material, art historical and the contemporary. Like my conceptual predecessors, my bookworks are created with a minimum of materials and an economy of means. Central to my thinking and current practice is the idea and the ethics of the ‘democratic multiple’.

I am a curator, writer, and book maker, based in Melbourne. I have a deep interest in Conceptual art and artists’ books within the context of global conceptualism from the 1960s onwards. My curatorial background and art historical interests inform my current creative practice.

Steven Tonkin 2022