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Beautiful Books: Rare Book Week Launch

When

Event Status

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... Read more

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 vario... Read more

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 p... Read more

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.