Surpllus is an independent publisher of printed matter pertaining to critical and speculative practices across art, design, architecture, writing and curation. Projects include (but are not limited to) artists’ books and zines, exhibition catalogues, and critical writing and theory.
     Surpllus is conceived as a platform for dialogue and exchange, and as a channel for the initiation or dissemination of unconventional print projects. Surpllus is also intended as an inquiry into contemporary publishing strategies — projects therefore differ in respect of form, print run and mode of distribution.
     In-house printing and binding facilities permit the realisation of niche projects. Conversations with artists, designers, writers and curators are welcomed at any time
— contact: info[at]surpllus.com

 

Stockists Boekie Woekie (Amsterdam) Dark Horsey (AEAF) (Adelaide) MCA Store (Sydney) Monash University Museum of Art (Melbourne) Motto (Berlin), (Weils), (Zürich) National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne) Readings (Melbourne) Section 7 Books (Paris) World Food Books (Melbourne)   Distribution Surpllus titles are distributed in Australia by Books at Manic.   Booksellers: please contact us directly with all other wholesale enquiries.

Surpllus Pty Ltd PO Box 418 Flinders Lane Melbourne Victoria 8009 Australia ACN: 141 137 064 ABN: 25 141 137 064 Editor: Brad Haylock

RRP: AUD30.00 inc. GST (USD30.00 / EUR24.00)

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Impresario: Paul Taylor, The Melbourne Years, 1981–1984 brings together a diverse body of texts focused on Paul Taylor, the Australian editor, writer, curator and impresario, and in particular his important and influential early years in Melbourne between 1981 and 1984. The dates of the texts included span some thirty years and take a variety of different forms — critical essays, reviews, short reflective texts, interviews, transcriptions of lectures — the combination of which seeks to analyse Taylor’s impact on Australian art history in the early 1980s, when he founded Art & Text and curated the landmark exhibition ‘POPISM’ at the National Gallery of Victoria, and the subsequent ripples that continue to encircle us in his wake, thirty years on.

     Edited and introduced by Helen Hughes and Nicholas Croggon, and featuring contributions by Ashley Crawford, Adrian Martin, Charles Green & Heather Barker, Chris McAuliffe, David Chesworth & Jon Dale, David Pestorius, Graham Willett, Ian McLean, Judy Annear, Janine Burke, Juan Davila, Jonathan Holmes, John Nixon & David Homewood, Jenny Watson & Kelly Fliedner, Lyndal Jones, Merryn Gates, Maria Kozic, Philip Brophy, Paul Foss, Patrick McCaughey, Peter Tyndall, Rex Butler & Susan Rothnie, Ralph Traviati, Imants Tillers, Edward Colless, Russell Walsh, Sue Cramer, Denise Robinson and Vivienne Shark LeWitt.

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Type: Book

Editors: Helen Hughes and Nicholas Croggon

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Offset

Binding: Burst

Dimensions: 134 x 200mm

Extent: 400pp + cover

Edition: 1000

ISBN: 978-1-922099-08-2

Year of publication: 2013

Shipping weight: 378g

Co-published with Monash University Museum of Art

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RRP: AUD22.00 inc. GST (USD22.00 / EUR15.00)

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Making Worlds: Art and Science Fiction is an anthology of new texts by artists, curators, art historians and writers who are self-confessed science fiction fans. The linking point is the idea of science fiction as a platform for the building of alternate art histories. This collection is concerned with the ways in which science fiction might be performed, materialised or enacted within a contemporary context.

     Edited by Amelia Barikin and Helen Hughes, with contributions by: Adrian Martin, Amelia Barikin, Andrew Frost, Anthony White, Arlo Mountford, Brendan Lee, Charles Green, Chris McAuliffe, Chronox, Damiano Bertoli, Darren Jorgensen, Dylan Martorell, Edward Colless, Helen Hughes, Helen Johnson, Justin Clemens, Lauren Bliss, Matthew Shannon, Nathan Gray, Nick Selenitsch, OSW, Patrick Pound, Philip Brophy, Rex Butler, Ryan Johnston, and Soda_Jerk.

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Type: Book

Editors: Amelia Barikin and Helen Hughes

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Offset

Binding: Burst

Dimensions: 115 x 165mm

Extent: 320pp + cover

Edition: 1000

ISBN: 978-1-922099-07-5

Year of publication: 2013

Shipping weight: 228g

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RRP: AUD40.00 inc. GST (USD40.00 / EUR32.00)

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Six Degrees formed in 1991, when six recent architecture graduates shared a studio space in Richmond, Melbourne. The group collaborated on small domestic and commercial commissions, public sculpture and architectural competitions. When the time came to settle on a name for the practice, the temperature on the iconic Nylex clock read an icy ‘6°’ — the name stuck, and Six Degrees was born.

     Amidst the recession of the early nineties, the first Six Degrees projects were necessarily resourceful, adapting warehouses and empty CBD office buildings into dwellings, often using low-cost or found materials. This approach was used in the design and establishment of Meyers Place Bar, which is commonly recognised as a catalyst for Melbourne’s laneway bar culture. The ensuing twenty years has seen Six Degrees develop as specialists in high-use spaces, including university and school buildings, offices, city precincts, restaurants and hotels. The work of Six Degrees is recognisable for its distinctive combination of raw materials and careful craftsmanship.

     This 224-page volume presents extensive documentation of the built works of Six Degrees, as well as drawings, early photographs and practice documents. Written contributions by Philip Goad, Rachel Hurst, Barrie Barton, Toby Horrocks and Tim O’Sullivan capture the impact of Six Degrees upon the architectural profession and upon the cultural fabric and built environment of Melbourne, while a conversation between Stuart Harrison and the directors of Six Degrees offers a unique insight into the evolution and the workings of the practice.

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Type: Book

Editor: Brad Haylock

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Offset

Binding: Burst

Dimensions: 170 x 240mm

Extent: 224pp + endpapers & cover

Edition: 1000

ISBN: 978-1-922099-02-0

Year of publication: 2012

Shipping weight: 600g

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RRP: AUD15.00 inc. GST (USD15.00 / EUR12.00)

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“Pandora (though this was not her name then) looked down into the empty urn, her heart sinking. The voice she thought she had heard, that had drawn her against her better judgement to open the thing a second time, was the voice of despair working its way back to her through history. Indeed, the voice that had called her was the voice of future generations, burdened by the magnitude of the calamity she had unleashed. And so she placed something of her own back into the jar, for their sake: a lie. The lie that hope remained. In this way, Pandora became the box herself, the box of the box, containing the terrible truth that there is no mortal relief from evil, but for the lie that evil is itself mortal.”

     Passing from boredom to sex, philosophy to suicide, curiosity to despair, this collection of fragments by the philosopher and writer Jon Roffe constitutes a record of the forced dialogue with existence that is human life.

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Type: Book

Author: Jon Roffe

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Risograph, 1-colour throughout

Binding: Perfect

Finishing: Foil stamp to front cover

Dimensions: 110 x 160mm

Extent: 48pp + cover

Edition: 500

ISBN: 978-1-922099-01-3

Year of publication: 2012

Shipping weight: 40g

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RRP: AUD30.00 inc. GST (USD30.00 / EUR24.00)

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Hostings: Ocular Lab, 2003–10 documents and celebrates the eight-year history of Ocular Lab Inc., an artist-run initiative that occupied a disused milk bar in West Brunswick, Melbourne. The book features 96 pages of imagery, new essays by Stephen Zagala and Zara Stanhope, and a chronology of ‘the Lab’. Hostings was produced on the occasion of the exhibition Ocular Lab Inc. at the VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, 12 April – 5 May 2012.

     Describing Ocular Lab in Frieze magazine, Max Delany wrote: ‘The activities and programme at Ocular Lab have evolved through a particular emphasis on hosting and dialogue and a desire for non-hierarchical collective processes. Ocular Lab dinners, held in the gallery space, often in honour of a visiting artist, became emblematic of a wider set of principles. The exhibition programme developed through individual members hosting projects, rather than by application or a committee judging process. Visiting artists always used the space rent-free, allowing for the space to be used in an open-ended spirit, often for process-based projects or as a temporary studio. And an array of international exchange projects took place in the space, ranging from artist talks and dinners through to longer-term site-specific projects.’

     The Ocular Lab membership was Damiano Bertoli, Sandra Bridie, Julie Davies, Raafat Ishak, Sean Loughrey, Jonathan Luker, Sally Mannall, Tom Nicholson, Elvis Richardson, and Alex Rizkalla. Previous members include John Abbate, Katherine Huang, Louise Paramor, Kirsten Rann, and Bernhard Sachs.

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Type: Book

Editors: Julie Davies & Brad Haylock

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Offset

Binding: Section-sewn, softcover, linen-taped spine

Finishing: Shrink-wrapped and labelled

Dimensions: 170 x 244mm

Extent: 116pp + cover

Edition: 600

ISBN: 978-1-922099-00-6

Year of publication: 2012

Shipping weight: 390g

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RRP: AUD20.00 inc. GST (USD20.00 / EUR16.00)

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In camera: a closet drama for the gallery is a sculpture of a play. The work is a transposition of Jean Paul Sartre’s Huis Clos; here, hell is a gallery populated by the Artist, the Viewer and the Artwork, allegorical personifications of the forces at play when art is viewed. These protagonists are stuck inside an object of which they form a part, and in a space constructed in the mind of the reader.

     This first edition, in English and German, was produced on the occasion of the exhibition Film Script Dance Manual Walking Tour, 23 March – 20 May 2012, at ACC Galerie, Weimar.

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Type: Artist’s book

Artist: Kel Glaister

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Print-on-demand

Binding: Perfect

Dimensions: 108 x 175mm

Extent: 204pp + cover

Edition: ∞

ISBN: 978-0-9807536-9-1

Year of publication: 2012

Shipping weight: 170g

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RRP: AUD25.00 inc. GST (USD25.00 / EUR20.00)

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Minimal Domination collects a selection of Justin Clemens’ art writings from the past decade. The title is drawn from contemporary mathematics: a minimally dominating set is the smallest set of points that neighbour all other points of a graph. A minimally dominating set is therefore a multiple and a structure which has privileged access to that which it is not. This is the secret of contemporary art: it creates discrete selections from which we can survey the whole.

     Justin Clemens, former art critic for The Monthly, has written extensively on contemporary art. The essays in Minimal Domination discuss the work of Joseph Kosuth, Gordon Bennett, Juan Davila, Mike Parr, Ricky Swallow, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, Christian Capurro, Philip Hunter and others.

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Type: Book

Author: Justin Clemens

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Risograph (1-colour text, 2-colour cover)

Binding: Perfect

Dimensions: 130 x 190mm

Extent: 184pp + cover

Edition: 500

ISBN: 978-0-9807536-8-4

Year of publication: 2011

Shipping weight: 225g

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RRP: AUD22.00 inc. GST (USD22.00 / EUR18.00)

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Forms for a public address presents an exchange between the Berlin-based Swedish artist Jan Svenungsson and the Melbourne-based Australian artist Tom Nicholson, written over a two-year period spanning 2008–2010. Shifting between a discussion of their own work and that of other artists, as well as art history and contemporary events as they unfold in parallel to the exchange, the book addresses the possibilities of art-making, the relationship between public forms and private processes, and the question of how artists understand their work in the face of the world around them.

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Type: Book

Authors: Tom Nicholson & Jan Svenungsson

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Offset (4-colour text, 2-colour cover)

Binding: Section-sewn, softcover

Dimensions: 106 x 170mm

Extent: 96pp + cover

Edition: 500

ISBN: 978-0-9807536-6-0

Year of publication: 2011

Shipping weight: 115g

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RRP: AUD10.00 inc. GST (USD10.00 / EUR8.00)

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Subtext: artists and writing was produced on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name, presented by un Projects, at West Space, Melbourne, 4–19 February 2011. The project examinded the diversity of form and the significance of writing in art. Six artists were invited to participate, with works that suggest the wealth of ways in which text can be an integral part of the creative process. The exhibition featured works by Vernon Ah Kee, Pablo Helguera, Lily Hibberd, Helen Johnson, Darren Sylvester and Tris Vonna-Michell. The publication, co-published with un Projects, features newly commissioned essays by Justin Clemens and Rosemary Forde, as well as artists’ pages and documentation of the exhibition.

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Type: Catalogue

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Risograph 1-colour (text) and digital full-colour (image plates)

Binding: Perfect

Dimensions: 140 x 190mm

Extent: 110pp + cover

Edition: 300

ISBN: 978-0-9807536-5-3

Year of publication: 2010

Shipping weight: 165g

Co-published by Surpllus and un Projects

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RRP: AUD25.00 inc. GST (USD25.00 / EUR20.00)

Out of print

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Brad Haylock’s From Zero Form to Absolute Commodity (ZF/AC) is the artist’s book form of an ongoing project of the same name. Much of Haylock’s work interrogates the commodification of critical and avant garde practices, both contemporary and historical — in this work, Suprematism is brought into dialogue with Vogue Living (a Malevich for every home!). The book comprises a series of partially redacted found images, printed using one-colour Risography throughout. ZF/AC was produced on the occasion of the exhibition Just what is it that makes today’s interiors so seductive, so alluring?, at Light Projects, Melbourne, 18 September – 10 October 2010.

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Type: Artist's book

Artist: Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Risograph, 1-colour

Binding: Perfect

Dimensions: 192 x 260mm

Extent: 112pp (n.p.) + cover

Edition: 50 + 5 APs

ISBN: 978-0-9807536-3-9

Year of publication: 2010

Shipping weight: 335g

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RRP: AUD25.00 inc. GST (USD25.00 / EUR20.00)

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On 30 August 1999, East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to become an independent nation in a ballot sponsored by the UN. Following the announcement of the result, occupying Indonesian troops carried out systematic destruction throughout East Timor. Within two weeks, several thousand civilians were murdered (a precise number is unknown), 200,000 were forcibly transported to concentration camps in West Timor and other parts of Indonesia, and most significant infrastructure was destroyed.

     Books were targeted for destruction. Libraries were systematically burned, amongst them the widely-used university library and the English library in Dili. Private collections of books were targeted, and in notable cases book collections of prominent intellectuals and independence activists were collected on the street, where they were publicly set alight. In villages, schools were systematically destroyed. Action for another library was established in Melbourne in response to these circumstances. Thousands of books were donated by bookstores, libraries, and individuals. They were shipped to Dili in containers, where they now form part of the nascent National University Library of East Timor. The title pages of some books were photographed before the books were sent to East Timor.

     The artist’s book After action for another library, with text in English and German, was first produced to coincide with the exhibition of the same name at the Humboldt University, Berlin, 28 August – 3 October 2003. Subsequent editions have been produced for exhibitions in which they are presented as stacks of multiples. The second edition, in English and Italian, was produced for System Error: War is a force that gives us meaning, at Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena in 2007. The third edition (and first Surpllus edition), in English only, was published on the occasion of Art of War, at CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, New York, in 2010. The fourth edition, available here, with text in English, Portugese, Timorese and Japanese, was published on the occasion of To the Arts, Citizens!, at Museu de Serralves, Porto, Portugal, 20 November 2010 – 13 March 2011

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Type: Artist's book

Artist: Tom Nicholson

Design: Tom Nicholson and Brad Haylock

Form: Book

Printing: Offset, 1- and 2-colour

Cover: Unprinted, clear foil

Binding: Section-sewn

Dimensions: 148 x 210mm

Extent: 160pp (n.p.) + cover

Edition: 5000

ISBN: 978-0-9807536-4-6

Year of publication: 2011

Shipping weight: 325g

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RRP: AUD5.00 inc. GST (USD5.00 / EUR4.00)

Out of print

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A catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name. A quarter turn on every screw (Kings ARI, Melbourne, 9 April – 1 May 2010) was an exploration of finality, anxiety and compulsion in art practice. Curator Kel Glaister writes: ‘We find ourselves at various points in our art practices, and our lives, with a project completed or a situation played out. At these points we have nothing left to do but see what happens next, what the world may throw at us. Nothing, that is, except check each (metaphorical) screw again and again.’

     A quarter turn on every screw was curated by Kel Glaister, and featured work by Brad Haylock, Anthony Johnson, Yvette King, Sanné Mestrom, Sanja Pahoki, Kiron Robinson, Jackson Slattery, Nedko Solakov and Lee Walton. This catalogue, comprised of unbound sheets contained in a clear sleeve, features essays by Kel Glaister and Tamsin Green, and documentation of the works.

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Type: Catalogue

Authors: Kel Glaister & Tamsin Green

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Post-zine

Printing: Risograph, 2-colour

Binding: Unbound, in sleeve

Dimensions: 210 x 297mm

Extent: 8pp + cover

Edition: 200

ISBN: 978-0-9807536-1-5

Year of publication: 2010

Shipping weight: 50g

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RRP: AUD22.00 inc. GST (USD22.00 / EUR18.00)

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Tom Nicholson’s Drawings and correspondence is an artist’s book which evolved in parallel to a set of his large charcoal drawings. These drawings were based on a single anonymous archival photograph, held in the collection of the State Library of Victoria, which captured the ‘native encampment’, a short-lived nineteenth-century ethnographic display in the Melbourne Zoo. The book consists of an imaginary email correspondence which responds to the nature of drawing as an activity, and to the meanings of the drawn surface.

     Drawings and correspondence was developed during Nicholson’s Creative Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria in 2007–8. It was realised for the exhibition Animism (22 January – 2 May 2010), a collaboration between Extra City Kunsthal Antwerpen and the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), in cooperation with the Kunsthalle Bern, the Generali Foundation Vienna, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin and the Free University Berlin.

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Type: Artist's book

Artist: Tom Nicholson

Design: Brad Haylock

Form: Booklet with folded poster

Printing: Offset, 2-colour

Binding: Saddle-stitch

Dimensions: 148 x 200mm (booklet); 162.5 x 227.5mm (poster, folded); 650 x 910mm (poster, unfolded)

Extent: 46pp, self-cover + poster

Edition: 500

ISBN: 978-0-9807536-0-8

Year of publication: 2010

Shipping weight: 140g

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