Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 18 July
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
In the midst of the e-revolution, where we’re as likely to download as to leaf through a book, the idea of the book as an object of beauty is being lost. Or is it?
To celebrate the launch of Rare Book Week, a panel of passionate bibliophiles – including a collector, a designer and a twenty-first-century book-maker – will explore changing perspectives on what makes a book beautiful … and what makes us treasure it long after its shelf life.
With Des Cowley, Rare Printed Collections Manager at the State Library of Victoria, designer W.H. Chong and booki.sh founder Virginia Murdoch. Hosted by Steve Grimwade.
Featuring
W.H. Chong
W.H. Chong is a book designer and design director at Text Publishing. A founding member of ABDA (Australian Book Designers Association), he also writes on visual art for Daily Review and on design for ABDA.com.au. Chong is an inductee of the Australian Book Designers Hall of Fame, and has spoken about book design on radio and at literary festivals. His work can be seen at whchong.com.
Virginia Murdoch
Virginia is a digital designer and one of the founders of Booki.sh, an e-book platform developed in Australia and since acquired by the US e-book giant OverDrive.
Virginia has worked extensively with booksellers, publishers, literary agents, authors and others in the book industry, in roles as various as manuscript assessment, illustration, cover design, website construction and consulting. As well as working for OverDrive, she is the deputy chair of the Writers Victoria committee of management.
Des Cowley
Des Cowley is the Rare Printed Collections Manager at the State Library of Victoria, and has more than twenty years experience working with rare books.
Des was a judge for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards in 1998, 1999, 2003 and 2010. He is the book reviewer for music magazine Rhythms. He previously edited the literary broadside Overland Extra, and is on the editorial panel of Script & Print and the La Trobe Journal. Des is co-curator of the State Library of Victoria’s permanent exhibition Mirror of the World: Books and Ideas and co-author of The World of the Book, published by Melbourne University Press in 2007.