Specialist librarian Joan Bruce aka Joan of Archives with illustrations by John James Audubon for The Birds of America. Audubon (1785–1851) was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist and painter. This 1972 facsimile was reproduced in full size by Ariel Press and is one of the rare books in State Library of Queensland's History and Art of the Book Collection. Photo by Cinnamon Smith.
Specialist librarian Joan Bruce never expected to be a social media sensation at 72.
But Joan of Archives, as she is better known online, is taking it in her stride, sharing her expertise on rare books with State Library of Queensland’s TikTok and Instagram followers.
Joan oversees the Australian Library of Art (ALA) at State Library. The ALA includes one of the largest publicly available collections of artists’ books in Australia, with almost 1,900 titles.
Joan of Archives’ video series on fascinating ALA treasures has taken TikTok and Instagram by storm, drawing new audiences for State Library collections – and rave reviews for her silky-toned storytelling. ‘Omg I love Joan’ was one follower’s verdict. ‘Scuse me while I google how to become Joan’s apprentice,’ said another.
Joan’s first video captured how a book binder, a woodworker and a poet turned a worm-eaten beam of timber into an artist’s book called The grub in the wood of time. The reel has been viewed almost 140,000 times on Instagram and led to her appearance in a series on social influencers in the Brisbane Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Another popular Joan of Archives reel brought together our 1583 edition of Mattioli’s herbal, the original hand-etched woodblock used to print a cornflower illustration in the book, and a print made with the same woodblock in the 1980s.
Ever seen a book co-created by a grub?
What if Jane Austen’s wildest book recommendation wasn’t a joke?
A reunion 400+ years in the making
Joan with The grub in the wood of time by Sun Evrard, John Tonkin and Mark O’Connor, which she describes as ‘a thing of wonder’. Photo by Cinnamon Smith.
We asked Joan to share a bit about her 50-year career in libraries and the books that have captured her imagination.
How did you get into this line of work?
My career started at the National Library of Australia in 1976. I fell into arts librarianship a few years later at the National Gallery of Australia Research Library. I got the job because I had languages, not because of any arts background. I think about 30 per cent of their research collection was in languages other than English. I started in the winter of 1981. That was hard to forget as we were in an unheated building in the industrial precinct of Canberra. My boss at the time had a 2-bar radiator and she was not sharing. The National Gallery building was still under construction, but it opened a year later, so I got the experience of the big library move for the first time. Also hard to forget.
Anyway, it was becoming a specialist arts librarian at the National Gallery that eventually led me to State Library of Queensland in 1991. Because State Library had combined 2 specialist units – The Arts Unit and the Rare Books Unit – I started to work with rare books. I arrived at a time when the artists’ books genre was on the point of tremendous expansion. In 1991, I don’t think we had many more than half a dozen artists’ books in the collection, but by 1995 the genre had taken off, and I learned on the job. Again!
The vivid engravings in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine by William Curtis (1746–99) are a Joan favourite.
What’s your favourite collection book or book detail?
It changes all the time, but I must admit I’m very fond of books with hand-coloured copperplate engravings. Think the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It may have begun with a donation of early volumes of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. The illustrations leap off the page. If you could see the glowing colours, you would understand immediately.
Execution by Ken Campbell (1939–2022) – a State Library treasure loved by book sniffers the world over.
Which book smells the best?
Ken Campbell’s artist’s book Execution. He used so much ink, printing and overprinting the pages, that after 35 years it can still give book sniffers their fix. I’m told the staff at The British Library say they can always tell when someone is looking at Ken’s books. The smell of ink fills the reading room.
Joan filming a video on State Library’s 1927 edition of Horrid mysteries, ‘an 18th-century shocker’ that Jane Austen name-checked in her posthumous gothic spoof Northanger Abbey in 1817: ‘Some people say the most horrid thing about Horrid mysteries is the quality of the writing. And the plot. And the characterisation.’
What’s the most beautiful book you’ve come across?
Another impossible question. I can think of a couple, and I’m still finding books I haven’t seen before. I like quirky things, too, books such as Horrid mysteries. I saw it in an antiquarian book dealer's catalogue and thought it would be great for our History and Art of the Book Collection. Then I checked the catalogue and found out we had it already. Its story is so fascinating that [Marketing Officer] Cinnamon Smith and I did one of the Joan of Archives social media posts about it.
How do you know when something belongs in State Library’s collection?
It was very hard at first. I spent a couple of years painstakingly going through our collection development policies and comparing them to dealers’ catalogues and reviews of art books. Then after a while you get a feel for the shape of the collection and it’s full speed ahead. The only things holding you back are the size of the budget and the time available. These days that’s not my main job, but I still make recommendations sometimes.
Exploring sculptural books with Joan
Joan of Archives leads free monthly curator’s tours of the hidden gems of the Australian Library of Art at State Library. Or you can wander through the Australian Library of Art Showcase and Extraordinary stories on level 4 between 10 am and 5 pm daily.
See more from State Library’s stunning Artists’ Book Collection.
Read more fabulous stories about our collection in Highlights.
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