Castlemaine artist David Frazer is preparing to unveiling a hand-printed book interpreting the Nick Cave song Love Letter.
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The work has taken him three years to finish with the coronavirus pandemic slowing him down in a number of ways.
"I got permission to do it about three years ago and made a bit of a start but had to do other work for exhibitions at the time," Frazer said. "So I got stuck into it in late 2019 and went pretty hard for a year but it took a while because of COVID.
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"There were challenges with the German paper I use for the book not being available in Australia and I had to wait a long time for (Cave's management) in London because they were in lockdown all time time.
"It was ready to send over but that took a long time because of the UK lockdown but I finally got them there. I randomly got an email from Nick about a month ago and he had seen them, signed them and loved them."
The books are limited edition of 20 copies. Each features 21 wood engravings that were hand printed on Frazer's 1850s-era Columbian platen press, which is one of 400 in the world. They were then bound by hand by Melbourne artisan George Matoulas.
"Every page is hand printed by me on my old 1850s iron hand press," he said. "It is all old school and no computers are involved. You can feel the text embossed in the paper.
"I love the fact that it is all old school. The presses are old, the skills and technology I am using are the same as what they were doing 250 years ago."
Frazer, has been an artist and printmaker for 30 years, but says he is a songwriter at heart.
"I couldn't write songs, so I did painting at art school and didn't think of printmaking until after art school," he said. "(When) I went back for honours in printmaking, I was introduced to wood engraving, which I felt was the closest thing I could find to writing a song.
"It suited a song's narrative because it was small and intricate. It suits that narrative, so engraving i something I think of like writing songs. When I bind them in to book, it's almost like an album."
Nick Cave is the ninth time Frazer has created a book like this. He has previously done works for Martin Flanagan, Paul Kelly and Don Walker.
"A few years ago I asked Paul Kelly if I could use a song of his, that was the first time I worked with a singer-songwriter, then Don Walker who wrote Cold Chisel's songs and, then Nick Cave," he said. "I am sort of riding on my rock star fantasy.
"Before Paul Kelly, I tried writers like Tim Winton but musicians are more open to their words being covered. I don't know how many I'll do. I'm trying get Tom Waits, that's ultimate goal. He was big influence,
"Nick Cave is such a good wordsmith. his visual imagery (and) all his stories are heartbroken love stories about confused men reminiscing about when had a girlfriend. Most of my artwork is about bewildered men."
The book's launch will coincide with an exhibition at Australian Galleries in Melbourne on August 31.
"My are fingers crossed for it," Frazer said. "It's looking good at the moment. The body of work I have done to accompany the book is the most excited I have been about work I have done.
"I feel, after 30 years, like I know what I'm doing. I'm doing the work I have wanted in a way I have always wanted to."
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