Special book viewings and book-making
National Library
Book viewing
Join curatorial, research and conservation staff at the National Library Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa for a special viewing of photobooks, personal albums and other original photographic material from the Alexander Turnbull Library collections. The event also includes a rare back-of-house tour of the National Library’s world-class storage vault for photographic film negatives.
Friday 7 August
10:30am-12:00 & 1:30-3:00pm
Meet at the ground floor reception
National Library Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa
Corner Molesworth & Aitken St
Free event
Limit of 15 people. Please book on the form below. These sessions are fully booked.You can use the form below to go on the waitlist.
Te Papa
Assemble your own photobook
If the Festival’s book fair inspires you, then join Te Papa staff for an opportunity to assemble your own miniature photobook. Explore photographs from Te Papa’s collections, and create new sequences and relationships between your favourites. Then learn how to finish your book using simple bookbinding techniques.
Saturday 8 August
Toi Art foyer during the bookfair, Level 4, Te Papa
Free event, no booking required
Slow Burn Ahi Tāmau photobooks
Hear from the creators of the photobooks in Lissa Mitchell’s Slow Burn Ahi Tāmau exhibition.
Saturday 8 August
2pm - 2.45pm
Slow Burn exhibition, L4, Te Papa
With Lissa Mitchell and Jane Wilcox, Sheryl Campbell, Poppy Lekner, Mary Macpherson, Fiona Lascelles, Virginia Were, Virginia Woods-Jack, Samson Dell and Belinda Whitta.
Free event. No Booking required.
That’s you Mugwort! - performance
Ann Shelton’s That’s you Mugwort! (2026) is a performance commission for the exhibition Slow Burn: Women and Photography | Ahi Tāmau: Māreikura Whakaahua, curated by Lissa Mitchell.
That’s you Mugwort! traces the relationships between plants and humans, weaving together fragments on herbal knowledge, witch hunts, reproductive control, pharmaceuticals, and plant futures.
Featuring performers Jo Bragg, Takatāpui, he/they pronouns, Ngati Porou, and Miriama Ashby, Ngāti whātua ki Kaipara and Ngāti Hine, along with vessels made by ceramicist Lisa Coleman.
Saturday 8 August, 3-3.30pm
Toi Art galleries, L4
Te Papa
Rare photobooks
Athol McCredie, Curator of Photography at Te Papa, will talk about and show some of the significant photobooks produced in Aotearoa New Zealand in the twentieth century – before the word ‘photobook’ was invented. Well-known titles, such as Robin Morrison’s The South Island of New Zealand From the Road, as well as little known and rare publications, like Simon Buis’ The Brutus Festival, will be discussed.
Saturday 8 August
11 – 11.45am
Te Aka Matua Reading Room, level 4
Te Papa.
Limit 20 people - THIS SESSION IS FULLY BOOKED.
Free event