True Belief. Publisher.
new website coming soon
CLUBS Project
coming soon — It’s been a long time in the making but, with any luck, CLUBS PROJECT is an upcoming monograph about the activities of the influential Melbourne artist initiative. To be launched at the NGV Art Book Fair, 2025.
Unimposing Form
coming soon — Unimposing Form by Benjamin Woods / 2025 / 135×200 / 84 pages / perfect binding / ISBN 978‑0‑9756242‑1‑0. Unimposing Form is an essay book that rethinks the relationship between form and matter in forming practices, including and exceeding sculpture. These essays explore the potential of the work of philosopher and psychoanalyst Luce Irigaray for rethinking forces of sculptural formation through an exploration of the practices of Barbara Hepworth and Lygia Clark. When put into generative dialogue with theory from Jacques Derrida and Suely Rolnik, Irigaray’s conceptualisations of the interval, difference, relation, and affection enable a rethinking of tensions and conventions at play between notions of form and matter.
“Printing”
coming soon — 100 Risograph monoprints in an edition of 100. Self cover with open colour spine, 200 pages.
Abolishing Chance
coming soon — This booklet follows the life of some outdoor typography and its struggle against the world, as mediated by the ghost of a French symbolist poet. Purchase of this publication allows download of the accompanying typeface.
Institutional Poems (1 & 2)
Institutional Poems 1 was produced as part of Terms and Conditions. Institutional Poems 2 was launched at John Nixon’s A Word Project at Reading Room in 2019 (Photos by Yanni Florence). A6 self cover, perfect bound, 64 pages.
mouth mouth, to the skin on boiled milk, quail eggs eaten from the hand in fog make everything aphrodisiac
by Rachel Schenberg. mouth, mouth was written to accompany the exhibition mouth mouth with artists Ceel Mogami de Haas, Miriam Kongstad, Toon Fibbe & Laura Wiedijk at BIKINI Space in Basel, CH, Summer 2019. Skin was written during Sabrina Soyer’s how to become… workshop at The Cheapest University, Paris. First published in how to become a body double, DQ press, 2017. Quail Eggs was written in Rotterdam, 2018. Collected together as trio for the first time.
A Parallel Publishing Workshop (1)
2018 / A4 / 84 pages / risograph one colour / perfect binding / ISBN 978‑0‑6482517‑0‑5. A publication in response to the conditions of reception during the exhibition Being As Becoming at Bus Projects, curated by Freek Lomme (Onomatopee, NL). Produced live during the exhibition as a series of A4, group‑authored, collaborative sheets adhered to the wall of the Publication Space and later collated into a book. By Lizzie Boon, Adam Cruickshank, Will Kollmorgen, Emma Nixon, Rachel Pakula, Lucy Russell. First print run of 100 copies. Co‑published with Bus Projects, print production funded by Bus Projects / Mondriaan Fund.
In One Hundred Thousand Yearsw
2017 / 140×190mm / 256 pages / waterless offset / cold glue binding / ISBN 978‑0‑9871705‑8‑3. A publication about the practice of Open Spatial Workshop (Terri Bird, Bianca Hester, Scott Mitchell) that also comprises a response to that practice. This book is the first published monograph on OSW and concurrently an artist book. It includes a complete (overprinted and illegible) bootleg of the OSW publication Converging in Time. Featuring contributions from Jon Roffe, Spiros Panigirakis, and others. Launched at the NGV with speakers Spiros Panigirakis and Helen Hughes.
True/False totes
42cm × 42cm / 100% 320gsm cotton canvas / reinforced shoulder straps. Charcoal tote bag printed each side TRUE/FALSE in opaque white. Squash Nord and Squash Hobo versions.
Squash Nord
2017 / 148×210mm / risographed two colours / 24 pages / saddle‑stitched / two printings. Adam Cruickshank and Ned Shannon. Typeface specimen zine that collates and codifies instances of a particular typo‑vernacular style. First printing sold out (profits were donated to ASRC). Second printing features additional images. Purchase includes download of the accompanying free typeface, Squash Nord in two weights: 35% and 28%.
Making Public the Making Public
2016 / various / laser printed / saddle stitched. A performative, site‑responsive publishing intervention at the NGV Art Book Fair, distributing approximately 300 free zines produced entirely on‑site during the three days. Emphasising urgency over consideration, each zine offered a reflexive critique of how institutional contexts frame creative practice. Titles included: Photos of Tony Ellwood… and the closely related Photos of seagulls on the roof of the NGV… (the latter was the most popular, with an estimated 100 copies). Other titles included Photos taken at the NGV Art Book Fair 2016 Opening Preview… Twelve zines were made, with edition numbers varying based on demand.
Table
2016 / 210×260mm / 96 pages / digital offset / perfect bound / ISBN 978‑0‑9871705‑7‑6. Edited by Dell Stewart. A book‑format exhibition with contributions from Margaux Williamson, Sarah Weston, Amy Vuleta, Anna Varendorff, Manon Van Kouswijk, Meredith Turnbull, Nat Thomas, Dell Stewart, Tai Snaith, Dylan Martorell, and others. Photos: Matthew Stanton.
Dept. of Lions
2016 / 164×274mm / 236 pages / triple spine bound / ISBN 978‑0‑9871705‑6‑9. The Department of Lions visual reader was produced a year after the exhibition and series of actions of the same name at Plimsoll Gallery, School of Creative Arts, UTAS. The exhibition comprised a series of interventions into the archive of gallery ephemera, including tactics that reordered, reimagined and redistributed the archive. Produced during UTAS artist in residence program.
A– – – –A, B– – – –B, and C– – – –C
2014, 2017, 2018 / 210×260mm / perfect bound / ISBN 978‑0‑9871705‑5‑2. A–A is a photographic exhibition reader that is also the first in a series ostensibly about the dissection of public space. Accompanied Actual Size at Bus Projects, Melbourne. B–B is a similar collection featuring contributions from Samuel Heatley and C–C is a collaborative work with students of Making Things Public, a third‑year studio within MADA’s Comm Des program.
Everything Far Away Can Be Near Again
2014 / tabloid newsprint / 36 pages / saddle‑stitched / ISBN 978‑0‑9871705‑4‑5. Exhibition reader that accompanied the exhibition of the same name at Linden Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne. A parallel publication that explores ideas inherent in the exhibition. With contributions from Terri Bird, Scott Mitchell, Brad Haylock, Anusha Kenny, Ash Kilmartin and Maria Kunda. Photos: Matthew Stanton.
The Half‑Asleep Pilgrim
2013 / 150×230mm / 144 pages / riso dust jacket / perfect bound / ISBN 978‑0‑9871705‑2‑1. Artist book and culmination of performative exhibition of the same name at West Space, Melbourne. This publication is a synthesis of a reading library contributed by 36 artists and friends that was housed in a custom made workspace available to the public for the duration of the event. The exhibition was essentially a set of rules and structures to determine how the exhibition itself would be remembered. Temporary reading library items were kindly loaned by many contributors.
Stitching Time
2013 / 148×210mm / 44 pages / digital / perfect bound / ISBN 978‑0‑9871705‑3‑8. Publication accompanying exhibition of the same name at Craft, featuring texts by Phip Murray and Jared Davis.
Dodecahedron
2012 / 2 volumes (1 dummy), 100 pages each / 148×210mm / risographed / perfect bound / ISBN 978‑0‑9871705‑1‑4. Publication accompanying exhibition of the same name at Platform Contemporary Art Space, curated by Adam Cruickshank.
Denim
2011 / 40 pages / perfect bound / ISBN 978‑0‑9871705‑0‑7. Publication that accompanied exhibition of the same name at Mr Kitly. Featuring artists Julie Floersch, Max Olijnyk, Jen Bartholemew, Lyn Balzer & Tony Perkins, Renilde Depeuter, Penelope Durston, Dell Stewart, Maricor/Maricar, Brett Day Windham and John Brooks.
Info / contact
True Belief is a small, informal, independent, profit‑averse art publisher, mostly organised by Adam Cruickshank. Initially instigated as a repository for my own artist books and catalogues for friends – and while remaining attentive to these non‑professional beginnings – True Belief has grown increasingly concerned with the relationships between contemporary art practice and its methods of explication, dissemination, and preservation. Publications are generally unnumbered/unsigned and although print runs are necessarily small, editions are usually considered open.
True Belief acknowledges and pays respect to the Wurundjeri people, traditional custodians of the land we work on. Aboriginal sovereignty has never been ceded — always was, always will be.
Contributors
Xavier Antin, Peter Barrett, Damiano Bertelli, Terri Bird, Lizzie Boon, Kim Brockett, Angela Brophy, Bree Claffey, Zoë Croggon, Adam Cruickshank, Jeremy Dower, Nic Dowse, Penelope Durston, Kelly Fliedner, Tony Garifalakis, Stuart Geddes, Channon Goodwin, Agatha Gothe‑Snape, Nathan Gray, Paul Green, Rebecca Hayes, Brad Haylock, Dermot Henry, Bianca Hester, Lily Hibberd, Christopher LG Hill, Rachael Hooper, Helen Hughes, Andy Hutson, Robert Janes, Natasha Johns‑Messenger, Anusha Kenny, Ash Kilmartin, Isobel Knowles, Will Kollmorgen, Annika Koops, Manon Van Kouswijk, Maria Kunda, Frans Van Lent, Alex Margetic, Drew Martin, Dylan Martorell, Kate Matthews, Ian Milliss, Scott Mitchell, Emma Nixon, Pat O'Brien, Rachel Pakula, Spiros Panigirakis, Maryann Talia Pau, Casey Payne, Simon Pericich, Selena Repanis, Jon Roffe, Ilia Rosli, Donald Russell, Lucy Russell, Dexter Sinister, Rachel Schenberg, Ned Shannon, Vivian Smith, Tai Snaith, Dell Stewart, Masato Takasaka, Kayo Taguchi, Harvest Textiles, Nella Themelios, Nat Thomas, Pauline Tran‑Cecil, Meredith Turnbull, Anna Varendorff, Oliver Van Der Lugt, Amy Vuleta, Ian Wadley, Helen Walter, Sarah Weston, Margaux Williamson, Benjamin Woods, Annie Wu, Emile Zile.