A rare Sydney artists book entitled Now at last ,circa 1970, is included in the latest list from Douglas Stewart Fine Books , Melbourne ,for $2400. It was conceived and edited by poet and counter-culture figure Michael Dransfield (1948-1973) and artist Chris Dowe .
There is a variation on our sunburnt country theme in the book, which is limited to 30 copies, this being number 24.
Further details : Oblong quarto (250 x 305 mm), plain purple cloth (dusty), linocut endpapers by Ann Pickering, 42pp , illustrated with original linocuts and stencil prints, accompanied by stencilled texts, some of which are tipped-in on colour papers. Includes art and texts by Michael Buzacott, John Cardiff, Karen Cairnes, Frances Rouse, Janet Bird, Kathie Woolfe, Stephen Cardiff, Bruce Craig, L. White, Jill Scurfield, Winsome Nicholson, Fiona Craig, Elizabeth Bowden and Chris Dowe.
While on the subject of a sunburnt country , our Sunbird chicks have survived the heatwave and flown the nest that was being baked on the back veranda .
There was a casualty ,however . Clumsy photographer Vallis , who used a small ladder to keep a check on the gasping Sunbirds , slipped and banged his shin , resulting in a blood blister .
Sadly , a tiny gecko lizard, which may have sort relief from the heat by roaming about the kitchen frig exterior ,was found frozen to death inside on a shelf, next to the margarine .
