Artists Book - A Buttery Demise

Earlier this year, while researching the history of the demise of the once mighty Kahikatea forests of New Zealand, I dreamt up an idea for an artist's book that would (hopefully) communicate some of the story behind the rapid destruction of these forests around the turn of last century. This has been a slow percolation of ideas requiring much research and having to learn how to achieve the result I was after.

For a bit of background about the destruction of the Kahikatea forests 

refer back to this earlier blog: HERE.

My concept was for this book to represent a block of butter to reflect how the timber was so suited to being made into butter boxes. When refrigerated shipping was developed in 1882, allowing dairy products to be shipped "home" to the UK, Kahikatea timber became in high demand. As a soft, pale and importantly, odourless wood, it was perfect for transporting butter.

New Zealand Stamp

My plan was to print a butter-sized block of wood-grained "timber" suggesting that the trees were as good as milled into blocks to be shipped off to the other side of the world. Inside the book is a quote provided as a result of a 1913 Royal Commission inquiry to decide in what manner the remaining standing forest should be dealt with:

‘As is well known the soil of the white-pine swamps, when drained and the trees removed, forms one of the richest of agricultural land, which when grassed, is extremely useful for dairy farms… Since no land is more suitable for occupation than that of the white-pine swamps, when drained… their value in this regard is a strong plea in favour of the removal of the trees forthwith.’

'By 1947 any reference to the kahikatea forests was in the past tense.' (Park, 1995)

Fernleaf Butter Poster

Process:

Tearing up a butter-sized block of paper to print.

Mixing a "buttery" colour - the colour of butter AND kahikatea timber.

Inked up wood grain to print from.

Resulting wood-grained paper.

A LOT of wood-grained paper.

Testing kettle-stitch - will it even work?!

Planning & testing fonts and text layout.

Kahikatea leaf

Designing the revised "logo"

Making a relief solarplate "stamp".

Printing the cover of the book.

Page inserts printed using linocut + text pages digitally printed.

Research included referemce to lots of old maps 

for symbols and markings indicating swamps and drainage ditches.

Detail of map by Dr Ferdinand von Hochstetter, 1859.

Arrows indicate drainage ditches!

Swamp markings.

I also sourced images of the drainage ditches being dug by manual labour to drain the swamps of the Hauraki Plains.

Land drainage on the Hauraki Plains probably between 1908 and 1910. Source: Te Ara.

Interestingly, this lead me on a bit of a personal journey: 

my paternal grandfather, who came to NZ as a 16 year old farm cadet in 1927, was employed during the Depression digging the "Ten Foot Drain" which still runs alongside "Ten Foot Road" on the Hauraki Plains. This research has made this an even more personal project than I had expected! He would have been about the age my sons are now - something more to reflect on.

Marking pages for stitching.

A new skill learned: Kettle-stitching.

Experiments to make the "butter paper" wrapping.

The completed wrapping to hold (contain) the book.

Kahikatea Butter Book by Toni Hartill

Tabs on each of the text inserts are so that they could be easily found when exploring the book. 

The tabs also reference the tabs on bureaucratic files in consideration of where the quote came from.

The completed book:

Kahikatea Butter Book by Toni Hartill

Kahikatea Butter Book by Toni Hartill

Interestingly the fully opened book resembles a
slide projection reel reminiscent of how we might
once have viewed images of the past.

And finally, here's a quick peek at the book in action!

I plan to exhibit this book next year as part of a slowly growing body of work.

Stay tuned!

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Thanks for visiting! 

Bibliography:

Earle, C. (2017, 12 29). Dacrycarpus dacrydioides. Retrieved from The Gymnosperm Database: https://www.conifers.org/po/Dacrycarpus_dacrydioides.php

        

Historical Maps of the Waikato Region. (n.d.). Retrieved from The University of Waikato: http://digital.liby.waikato.ac.nz/nzc/map/index_2.html

Land Drainage operations, Hauraki Plains. (n.d.). Retrieved from Te Ara: https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/30457/land-drainage-operations-hauraki-plains

Park, G. (1995). Nga Uruora. Wellington: Victoria University Press.