Invitation to a Wellington book launch

Louise Menzies, Pursuit of an Ideal ----------------------------------------------- Tuesday 27 March, 5.30pm ----------------------------------------------- The J.C. Beaglehole Room Victoria University Library Gate 3, Kelburn Parade, Wellington (See directions below) ----------------------------------------------- Special launch price: NZD$30 -----------------------------------------------

This artist’s book considers modern, scientistic attitudes to wellbeing through the example of the little known New Zealand-based mid-twentieth-century movement, the School of Radiant Living. Founded by English psychologist Herbert Sutcliffe in the 1930s and active until the early 1980s, the School taught a holistic philosophy of spirituality and physical health. A response to archival material produced by the School, and now held by the J.C. Beaglehole Room at Victoria University Library, Wellington, Pursuit of an Ideal includes a wealth of ephemera in reproduction. Characteristically, Menzies abstracts from this highly specific reference in order to consider its possible relations to our current situation. The publication imaginatively reconfigures the materials it responds to, collapsing document and invention. In this way, it draws out broader themes; tensions between the individual and the collective, the practical and the ideal, and the persistence of desire in nostalgia and utopian visions. This publication exists within a larger body of work that includes the installations “Move Your Arms in Circles”, “Letters to Students of the Radiant Life”, and a short film “Peloha” that shows a performance of exercises adapted from the School’s “Physical Culture” manual and that was filmed at the house of the same name (a contraction of “peace, love and harmony”) in Havelock North, the international headquarters of the School. It includes a poster insert and pamphlet featuring a text by Anna Sanderson which was first presented with these earlier iterations of this exploration of Radiant Living’s modernist vision. This book has been supported by the Victoria University Library, Wellington, and Creative New Zealand. The J.C. Beaglehole Room – named after Professor John Cawte Beaglehole, OM – is the home of Victoria University Library's Special Collections. These consist of rare books, archives, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, artefacts and all manner of materials both published and un-published which reflect the research, social and cultural life and interests of Victoria University of Wellington.

----------------------------------------------- Published by Clouds ----------------------------------------------- Text by Anna Sanderson ISBN: 978-0-9864628-3-2 ----------------------------------------------- 64 pages plus colour poster and 12-page insert Softcover English ----------------------------------------------- Edition: 600 Dimensions: 285 x 185 x 6 mm ----------------------------------------------- RRP: NZD$35 -----------------------------------------------

For further information visit: www.clouds.co.nz/louise-menzies-pursuit-of-an-ideal Available from bookshops and www.clouds.co.nz Clouds publishing PO Box 68 187 Newton, Auckland 1145 Aotearoa New Zealand +64 9 309 2604 hello@clouds.co.nz www.clouds.co.nz How to find the J.C. Beaglehole Room From the Carparking area at Gate 7: Go into Cotton Building next to the Security Office. Turn left and go past the computer shop (Yoobee). Through the double doors turn right and go through another set of doors. Turn left and go down the ramp to the Library foyer. From Kelburn Parade (facing upwards) turn in at Gate 3 (just above the pedestrian crossing). Follow the pathway and steps to the Adam Art Gallery. On your right are the temporary steps up to the Library foyer. From the uphill bus stop: Go into the Easterfield Building (straight ahead as you get off the bus), up to the next level and turn right at the top of the stairs (or left and left again out of the lifts). Follow the corridor into McLaurin Building, turn left and head across to the doors at the far side. Through those doors, turn left and go down the ramp to the Library foyer. From the Library foyer (Level 2). Go into the Library, cross to the atrium stairwell and go up. The J.C. Beaglehole Room is on the left at the top of these stairs.