Artists' books may have been around for over a century, but only in recent years have they been actively collected in Australia.

What are they? They are neither books about art, nor books about artists - instead they are books as art. About a century ago, Ambroise Vollard in Paris produced a number of exquisite livres d'artistes, where artists including Picasso, Rouault and Chagall created images related to the lyrics of poets and collaborated with master printers, letter press artisans and book binders to produce De Luxe limited edition artists' books. About a decade later, in Russia, artists associated with the revolutionary avant-garde produced a very different sort of artist's book - a democratic multiple - where neo-primitive styles and Constructivism were combined with Futurist and other verse. These books were raw, provocative and employed a variety of printmaking technologies which included lithography and rubber stamps. In both cases, the common link was the idea of books as art works, where the page formed an alternative art space to that of a gallery wall.

In subsequent decades the two traditions of artists' books have either co-existed or combined and by the 1960s and 1970s in Europe, America and to a lesser extent in Australia, an increasing number of artists turned to the production of these curious objects. While overseas, Printed Matter, Franklin Furnace, Other books and So and Art Metropole all served as significant early clearing houses for artists' books, in Australia the situation for selling artists' books was relatively bleak, with only limited exposure in the 1980s. It was not until 1991, when through the efforts of Noreen Grahame, the first major exhibition of Australian artists' books was held in Brisbane. By
1994, the Fremantle Print Award had included artists' books as a special category with its own prize. Subsequently Grahame Galleries + Editions (see page 25) in Brisbane conducted four major artist's book and multiples fairs in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2001, with another planned for September, 2007. In Sydney, Akky von Ogtrop has promoted artists' books in her Art on Paper fairs, while the Australian Galleries, Port Jackson Press
and Artisan Books have all held exhibitions of artists' books in Melbourne. Simultaneously, the last few years has witnessed the rapid growth of institutional collections of artists' books with the National Gallery of Australia holding a collection of some 1049 Australian artists' books; the State Library of Queensland about 800; Artspace Mackay about 400; the Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide over 300; and State Library of Victoria and Monash University about 300 artists' books each. About 20 other public collections hold sizeable
numbers of artists' books in Australia.

In both Europe and America artists' books have enjoyed a considerable popularity with private collectors, and presently the market is thriving with art investors. There has been a call for gatekeepers to be established to check on quality control, with suggested mechanisms to weed out fraudulent artists' books. One advocate of such measures, American book artist and critic, Johanna Drucker, passionately writes, "Otherwise, the risk is that the dross will overwhelm the better work and that the junk (sorry, but true) that is being produced under
the rubric of ABs, will just drag the level of production and conception to an impossible low ... ABs are the only field ... where someone takes a weekend workshop, goes home, sits down with scissors, tape, and paper, makes something in a few hours and then feels they have licence to sell it as an artist's book. Ruefully, cruelly, we agree that the phrase 'I am a book artist' is subject to unholy abuse."

Understandably, most artists have not warmed to the idea of control measures and have generally left it to the market to sort out questions of authenticity and value, as is the case with any other art form.

So what is the attraction of artists' books? Unlike paintings or even a portfolio of prints, artists' books involve
a very private viewing experience. Take for example the wonderful collaborative artist's book, Alignments II, 1999, with etchings, screenprints and blind embossing by Bruno Leti and the verse by Chris Wallace-Crabbe. Personally, I find exploring the subtlety in the combination of image and verse, the sensuousness of the page and the whole experience of moving through the book within the passage of time, a much more rewarding experience than an hour in front of the box watching forensic cops and robbers. The series of images, a brilliant binding and a perspex slipcase will set you back $3,900 (Port Jackson Press) while a smaller artist's book involving the same two participants, titled Morandrian, 2005/06, playing on the names Morandi and Mondrian is priced at $1,200 (Grahame Galleries + Editions, Brisbane). Not only are artists' books simple to store on a bookshelf,
Australian collectors have realised that they cost only a fraction of the price the individual etchings or other prints which they contain, should they be acquired separately. They are a wonderful viewing experience, require no special storage facilities and are a brilliant investment.

While I have been able to establish the size of Australian public collections of artists' books, buying patterns by private collectors are more difficult to gauge. Petr Herel, now based in Melbourne, but internationally acclaimed as an outstanding artist's book artist, had two absolutely beautiful artists' books, Rene Daumal, Phantom Skin, 1987 ($2,950) and Jiri Kolar, The Dullards, 2002 ($1,950) recently on show at the Australian Galleries in Melbourne, priced at only a fraction of their international worth. Some of the other key artists whom I
admire, involved in artists' books in Australia, include; Angela Cavalieri, Peter Lyssiotis, Juli Haas, Hertha Kluge-Pott, George Matoulas, Ron McBurnie, Stephen Spurrier, Geoffrey Ricardo, John Wolseley, Martin King, Bea Maddock, Rosalind Atkins, Kaye Green, Tanya Myshkin, Milan Milojevic, Adele Outteridge,
Julia Silvester, Glen Skein, Madonna Staunton, Wim de Vos, Paul Uhlmann, Jan Davis, Tommaso Durante, Jennifer Marshall, Michael Schlitz, Jonathan Tse, Normana Wight and Margaret Wilson. Leaving aside artists' zines - streetwise, non-commercial publishing alternatives - prices for artists' books range from about $50 to $30,000, although most of the artists whom I have mentioned here have artists' books on the market priced between $1,000 and $4,000. Artists' books in Australia are just now coming of age and prices are likely to
follow international trends and escalate through the roof.

If in recent years the role of the book has been redefined and digital technologies are freeing the book itself from a primary function of storing and disseminating data, communicating information and transmitting literatures, then the artist's book as an art object is moving to centre stage.

Image: Ron McBurnie, The Little Hole, 1996, collaboration between Ron McBurnie and masterbinder
Fred Pohlmann, etching, 9 x 9 x 7cm, edition of 10, Photograph by Doug Spowart. Collection of Centre for the
Artist Book, Brisbane.