Category: Review 2023

The culminating event of MRBW is always the Australian Antiquarian Book Fair, presented by The Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers (ANZAAB). This year saw the 51st iteration of the Book Fair, held once again at Wilson Hall at the University of Melbourne from July 27th until July 29th. The Fair convenor this

Book Fair Tour Guide: Chris Browne There were several tours of the ANZAAB Book Fair offered this year, with one, called “Meet me at the Book Fair” offered on Saturday 29th July. Chris led his party of nine “book tourists” around the fair, engaging with the book dealers and encouraging the tourists to explore the

MRBW featured four exhibitions this year. “You Can’t Draw in Books” at East Melbourne Library, open until July 31st 2023 “World of the Book Exhibition” at State Library Victoria, open until May 12th 2024 “Collective City” at PROV Gallery, 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, open until December 2023 “Here Lies Our Culture” at Baillieu Library,

The Tour was run by Daniel Wee of State Library Victoria. The two curators, Anna Welch and Daniel Wee, have prepared this year’s iteration of the exhibition of books from the wonderful public collection which is at the heart of the State Library Victoria (SLV). The exhibition is to be found in the Dome Gallery

Presented by The Public Record Office of Victoria On Thursday 27th July, The Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV) held the launch of their exhibition “Collective City”, which contrasts historic photos of Melbourne from the PROV collection with commissioned, contemporary images of our city. More than 250 people attended the launch event, which after the

Presented for The Royal United Services Institute of Victoria by Mike O’Brien The final event for Wednesday was again held at Tonic House, and featured Major General (Ret’d) Mike O’Brien speaking to an audience of 70 on behalf of The Royal United Services Institute of Victoria on Female Australian Poets of the First World War.

Presented by Ancora Press and Australian Scholarly Publishing On Wednesday evening, The Melbourne Athenaeum Library generously hosted the launch of a new book on a major new study of Bligh’s journals by John Fish. This crowded and sold-out event provided a welcome opportunity to honour author John Fish, whose book The Bounty and Beyond, co-published by Ancora

Unfortunately “Treasures from the John Emmerson Collection”, had to be cancelled due to the unavailability of the presenter due to illness. We are confident that this very important collection of English 17th century books, donated to the SLV by the late Dr. Emmerson, will be the subject of future MRBW events in years to come.

A panel discussion presented by the MCC Library In the middle of the day, the Melbourne Cricket Club library presented its traditional panel discussion on sporting books to an enthusiastic audience of 60 people. The panel members were the MCC’s head librarian David Studham, deputy librarian Trevor Ruddell and the official historian of the Melbourne

Presented for the RMIT Design Archive by Marius Foley Wednesday 26th July was the busiest day in the program for MRBW 2023, with five events. The day started with “Into the Archive: Creating Designer Books”, where Marius Foley presented an enlightening session on the history of Backyard Press and Champion Books, founded in the 1970s