Here is a list of Sassy Park's favourite 10 books that inspire and inform her creative process. 

 

Sassy says, "Books are making a come-back in my life. Google search just doesn't do everything you want it to and I predict a return to books and library research in the next
decade. Although I have only listed photographer's books, I would also recommend artist's books of drawings as inspiration for the bookshelf."
All books available from Published Art on request if not in stock.

01

Grayson Perry: Portrait of The Artist As a Young Girl

 

I found that Grayson Perry, the English cross-dressing potter, and I have some things in common. I suppose it is no surprise to discover that we both like wearing dresses and decorating pots. I enjoyed reading his biograpy immensely.

 

02

Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner 

 

Just a really enjoyable read. Biographies and memoires are always much more interesting to me than fiction.

 

03

Sheets Ein. By Nils Fahm

 

 

Nils Frahm is a German contemporary composer living in Berlin. He doesn't read music, he says but writes the most delicate
piano music which is in this folio. He uses a prepared piano which means he puts a dampener inside with the strings which
gives a muffled intimacy. Sometimes in his recordings you will hear a piano key mechanism or a clunk of something
extraneous. The album, Screws, was written when he broke his thumb so it is composed for 9 fingers. I listen to it to when I
need space to think.

* Can be specially ordered instore

 

 

04

Twenty Short Pieces for Piano. Eric Satie

 

The combination of Eric Satie's short, witty piano pieces and eccentric phrases in French with deco-style line illustration
makes this a complete work. Written in 1914 to accompany the drawings of Charles Martin, the book wasn't published until
after the war in 1923. I had an earlier publication which I have mislaid although I have continued to enjoy and play Satie since
I first performed these pieces at art school. This is how I like to enjoy sport and other entertainments. Entendez-vous le lapin
qui chante? (Do you hear the rabbit singing)

 

05

An Uncertain Grace. By Sebastian Selgado

 

 

Sebastiao Selgado uses photography for social good, showing how others lives are lived. As well as creating beautifully
moving photographs, his humanity is what takes my attention.

 

06

My Parents: A Homage to Fashion, photography and Life. By Thai Cong Quach

 

Before 'Advanced Style' and other homages to dashing older fashionable types, was Thai- Cong Quach, My Parents. It pitches
his parents in a series of high fashion shoots which is kooky as well as respectful and ultimately endearing.

 

 

07

The Artists Handbook of  of Materials and  Techniques By  Ralph Meyer

 

This is a practical manual. If you want to know how to size a canvas or mix your own egg tempera, this is the book for you. I have used as a source guide for the last 30 years.

 

08

Olive Cotton Photographer By Helen Ennis

 

 

Of course women artists still don't have as much recognition as men although Olive Cotton's legacy is strong and hopefully still growing.
This came as a special edition which included one of Cotton's prints of flowers.

 

 

09 

The  Lonely Doll. By Dare Wright.

 

This was one of my childhood books and the photographs and story fascinated me with a weird attraction. I think I may have grounded some of my more conflicting values from this information.

 

10

The  Shorter Oxford Dictionary.

 

This book belonged to my Grandfather, Dr Bertram Cox, a Macquarie Street Pathologist. In 1951, he was called up as an expert witness in the Fleming murder trial where he presented his findings of the effect of cyanide in Minties, chocolate and beer! The dictionary, signed by him in 1961 and with the price still inside in pencil, is now an antiquity of the english
language. I am interested in how language grows and changes over time, with words becoming redundant and new words created and added to our vernacular. Exploring the orgin of words opens a world of history, social mores and understanding of our current language.