8 October 2007
Exhibition peeks into private lives of the famous
A new exhibition at the State Library of Queensland peeks into the personal lives and interests
of some prominent Australian and international identities.
State Librarian Lea Giles-Peters said Ex Libris: bookplates from our collections features the
bookplates of celebrated artists, writers, celebrities and even royalty.
“Artists were often commissioned to create a very personal and unique bookplate that reflected
the interests, profession or persona of the book owner,” she said.
“Today we can look back at these petite and personal artworks for a glimpse into the private
lives of some fascinating people.
“Benito Mussolini, the Princess of York (now Queen Elizabeth II), Duchess of York (the late
Queen Mother), Sir Joh and Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen, Patrick White, Ethel Turner, Dorothea
Mackellar, Brett Whiteley, Lloyd Rees, Norman and Lionel Lindsay are all featured in the
exhibition.”
Ex Libris, meaning ‘from the library of’, looks at some of these artworks, the development of
bookplates and the techniques used to create them.
“From ancient Egypt to the middle ages and the 20th century, bookplates have denoted
ownership of a book,” said Ms Giles-Peters.
“But in our 21st century global village, bookplates can now signify books that don’t belong to
any one person through the global phenomenon of BookCrossing.
“BookCrossing encourages people to read books, release them ‘into the wild’ and then follow
their journey and the lives they touch via the website www.bookcrossing.com.
“The website produces a range of bookplates that explain BookCrossing, how the book is not
owned by anyone but is freely available to whoever picks it up. In this way, the BookCrossing
bookplate performs the opposite role to that of a traditional bookplate.”
For those who want to participate in BookCrossing, there will a space set up in Infozone on
level 1 for people to leave a book behind or pick one up.
Ex Libris is open until 28 January 2008 at the State Library of Queensland, South Bank. Entry
is free.
Discover more about bookplates and the artists behind them with a series of free talks. Visit
www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on for more information.
Media inquiries
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