Pull, Pop, Push at State Library of South Australia

Pop-up and the many ingenious forms of kinetic media sometimes called paper engineering derive from techniques of a graphic artform that stretches back nearly 800 years. Moveable elements and clever paper mechanics, such as volvelles and liftable flaps were first used to express often obscure knowledge, from corporeal to celestial bodies. 

As a technical artform it has evolved from these early, hand made books and media, through a Victorian era revolution, to the realm of expressive children’s books, ingenious greetings cards and even augmented reality projections, where small card scenes can be a spatially coherent part of a virtual world. 

Along the way, it’s informed other ways of seeing, too. The zoetrope, for instance and the flip book, which revolutionised our understanding of the relationship between the static and moving image. No surprise then that an invitation to conceive of a small, immersive exhibition celebrating the extensive and rare collection of the SLSA, was enthusiastically accepted!

The State Library of South Australia contains exquisite examples of pop-up books that represent this centuries-old legacy wonderfully, from volvelles and medical reference books with their intricate and revealing flaps, to absolute classics by Lothar Meggendorfer, and Vojtěch Kubašta. You can see all of these beautiful originals in the exhibition, but behind glass.

After a workshop to discover this collection and aspirations for the exhibition amid the curatorial team at SLSA, the conceptual approach centred on tactile and revelatory celebrations of the craft and artistry through scale and presence. When you visit the exhibition, you’ll first encounter the white card and reverse side of large scale objects: an arch of trees, an articulated kangaroo and a dragon lizard that can be moved. There’s a life-size model of Kubašta's Noah’s Ark, and the Tunnel under the Thames. From inside the exhibition, everywhere you turn are the scale, tactile expressions of this incredible collection, accompanied by the original books.

While the delicate originals sit in cases, their scaled-up counterparts celebrate the intricate narrative and illustration details, their clever construction, and powers of optical illusion. You can literally walk down the Tunnel under the Thames and follow the many funny narratives onboard the Ark, all the while comparing the much smaller originals.

Sound books also feature, with their clever paper bellows and string action, accompanied by previews of the real sounds they make.

Pull, Pop, Push runs until the end of January 2027, and is a free exhibition at the State Library of South Australia.

Tremendous thanks to the team at Village Gate who helped realise this exhibition, to Mark Gilbert at SLSA, and Imogen Landau, the exhibition's graphic designer.