{"product_id":"bella-li-theory-of-colours-hardback-limited-edition-of-50-copies","title":"Bella Li, Theory of Colours (Hardback - limited edition of 50 copies)","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eJoint winner of the Tafeda Best Designed Independent Book in the 70th Australian Book Design Awards 2022\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eShortlisted for the Small Press Network Book of the Year 2022\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eShortlisted in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2022\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e'\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTheory of Colours\u003c\/em\u003e is an impressive production, speaking to what Foucault called the necessity of conjuncture, two intensities coming together, a book that is constructed as much as it is written. Bella Li brings the visual and the verbal into contact to challenge the boundaries of poetry and visual design.' \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSPN Book of the Year 2022 shortlist\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e'There is beauty in the restraint of the design of \u003cem\u003eTheory of Colours\u003c\/em\u003e. Bella Li's sensitive use of colour has produced an elegant and intriguing book. This is a page-turner for any designer lucky enough to thumb their way through the pages. An accomplished designer at work.' \u003cstrong\u003eAustralian Book Design Awards 2022\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Mesmerising and uncompromising, Bella Li’s \u003cem\u003eTheory of Colours\u003c\/em\u003e arrests readers with its strangeness. Through its collaging and arrangement of diverse textual and visual elements, Li’s book provides an extended meditation on the relationship between absence and presence, margin and centre, appearance and disappearance. This is a work of uncanny poetic framing, where the recombination of source materials — historic images, found texts, and Li’s own haunted words — generates a series of extraordinary and phantasmagorial new worlds.' \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNSW Premier's Literary Awards  \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/awards\/kenneth-slessor-prize-poetry\/2022-shortlisted-theory-colours\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.sl.nsw.gov.au\/awards\/kenneth-slessor-prize-poetry\/2022-shortlisted-theory-colours\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eRead more\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e'There is a cosmic, melancholy weight to this collection that I find unsettling. And yet, there is a gentle matter-of-factness to Li’s writing that simultaneously reassures; a reminder of life and presence, someone’s voice travelling to meet you.' Sarah Yeung in\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Westerly \u003c\/strong\u003e(\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/westerlymag.com.au\/theory-of-colours\/\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/westerlymag.com.au\/theory-of-colours\/\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eread more\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e'In this dance between reading and writing, Li shows us that the illuminated gap of the poetic play is manifold: meanings, signs and associations are generated by author and reader alike. It is open to delighting us in the way that Barthes said a photograph was open to animating him: \"this is what creates every adventure\".' Isabella Gullifer-Laurie in \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMeanjin\u003c\/strong\u003e (\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/meanjin.com.au\/review\/contiguity\/\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/meanjin.com.au\/review\/contiguity\/\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eread more\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e'With \u003cem\u003eTheory of Colours, \u003c\/em\u003eLi has levelled up the uncanny. Unnerving collages with gothic overtones give way to prose poems that are a tissue of references. The empty spaces of abandoned hotels and national parks, devoid of human life, create a sense of dislocation, and haunting. While nearly two years of lockdowns may or may not have shaped the artistic choices here, it is impossible not to associate these collages with the eerie, blank streets of our empty cities.' Joan Flemming in \u003cstrong\u003eAustralian Book Review\u003c\/strong\u003e (\u003ca data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.australianbookreview.com.au\/abr-online\/current-issue\/969-november-2021-no-437\/8522-joan-fleming-reviews-capacity-by-lk-holt-and-theory-of-colours-by-bella-li\" href=\"https:\/\/www.australianbookreview.com.au\/abr-online\/current-issue\/969-november-2021-no-437\/8522-joan-fleming-reviews-capacity-by-lk-holt-and-theory-of-colours-by-bella-li\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eread more\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'In this dance between reading and writing, Li shows us that the illuminated gap of the poetic play is manifold: meanings, signs and associations are generated by author and reader alike. It is open to delighting us in the way that Barthes said a photograph was open to animating him: \"this is what creates every adventure\".' \u003cstrong\u003eMeanjin\u003c\/strong\u003e (\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/meanjin.com.au\/review\/contiguity\/\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/meanjin.com.au\/review\/contiguity\/\"\u003eread more\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVisit the \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au\/culture\/poetry\/2021\/03\/06\/bella-li\/161494920011206\"\u003eSaturday Paper\u003c\/a\u003e for a recent interview with Bella Li by Maddee Clark about \u003cem\u003eTheory of Colours\u003c\/em\u003e and visit \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.liminalmag.com\/interviews\/bella-li\"\u003eLiminal Magazine\u003c\/a\u003e for Robert Wood's 2018 interview.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe colours recorded by the spectroscope are the inverse of the true colours, which float in the pupil after the eye has closed.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTheory of Colours\u003c\/em\u003e takes as its title and point of departure the influential nineteenth-century treatise on colour by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. In Li’s third full-length collection, colour — and its absence — is at once subject, structural principle and medium. Moving from the distant past, through the fleeting, unstable present, and into a series of speculative futures, the book elaborates worlds both familiar and strange — a country estate, a small town, a grand hotel, a tower. Informed by the spectral practices of early photography and cinema, as well as the visual and thematic conventions of ghost stories, westerns and science fiction, Li’s narratives of text and image are unsettling explorations of sequence and time, absence and haunting. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBella Li\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/products\/bella-li-argosy\" target=\"_blank\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/products\/bella-li-argosy\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eArgosy\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e(Vagabond Press, 2017), which won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry and the Kenneth Slessor Prize, and was highly commended in the Anne Elder Award and commended in the Wesley Michel Wright Prize; \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/collections\/facebook\/products\/bella-li-lost-lake?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=ab97b744c\u0026amp;_ss=r\" target=\"_blank\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/collections\/facebook\/products\/bella-li-lost-lake?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=ab97b744c\u0026amp;_ss=r\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLost Lake \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e(Vagabond Press, 2018), shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award; and \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/collections\/new-releases\/products\/bella-li-theory-of-colours\" target=\"_blank\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/collections\/new-releases\/products\/bella-li-theory-of-colours\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTheory of Colours\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e(Vagabond Press, 2021), shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize and joint winner of the Australian Book Design Association award for Best Designed Independent Book. Her first work \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/collections\/rare-object-series\/products\/bella-li-maps-cargo?_pos=3\u0026amp;_sid=70716b331\u0026amp;_ss=r\" target=\"_blank\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/collections\/rare-object-series\/products\/bella-li-maps-cargo?_pos=3\u0026amp;_sid=70716b331\u0026amp;_ss=r\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMaps, Cargo\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e appeared as part of the Rare Object Series. Her poetry, artwork, short fiction, essays, and reviews, have been published widely, including in the \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAustralian Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOverland\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGoing Down Swinging\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePeril\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRabbit\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLiminal\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Kenyon Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eArchives of American Art Journal\u003c\/i\u003e. Recent work can be found in \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMeanjin \u003c\/i\u003e(Winter 2021), \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNew Directions in Contemporary Australian Poetry \u003c\/i\u003e(Palgrave, 2021),\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eArt Writing in Crisis \u003c\/i\u003e(Sternberg, 2021).\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eShe holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is the associate publisher at Cordite Books and the managing editor at Scribe Publications. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAuthor photo credit: Leah Jing McIntosh, 2018. \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.liminalmag.com\/\"\u003eLiminal Magazine.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;\" data-mce-style=\"caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBella Li,\u003cem\u003e Theory of Colours\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e2021. 152mm x 228mm. 176pp. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eISBN \u003c\/span\u003e978-1-925735-23-9\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRelease date: August 2021 \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLimited edition of 50 hardback copies thread-sewn between boards, with dust jacket.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePaperback edition also \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/products\/bella-li-theory-of-colours\"\u003eavailable\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/files\/aca_logo_horizontal_small_rgb-54322b14eed17_480x480.png?v=1600310698\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39980769738909,"sku":"","price":80.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/Li_TheoryOfColours_cover_8f63293d-141e-412e-8132-4a200f6a522e.jpg?v=1621547903","url":"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/de\/products\/bella-li-theory-of-colours-hardback-limited-edition-of-50-copies","provider":"Vagabond Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}