Billy Apple's Revealed/ Concealed Exhibition at ACAG, 1979

These six unique booklets are the only remaining residue of REVEALED/CONCEALED, a site specific exhibition by Billy Apple, curated by Wystan Curnow. They were purchased for the Auckland Art Gallery's (AAG) artist book collection from Curnow. Curnow compiled, and in one case wrote, these booklets which were an integral part of the exhibition (held December 1979 - January 1980 at ACAG), and served to contextualize Apple's alterations to the fabric of the gallery. They were presented as reading material on tables and accompanied by various photographs and plans, pinned to the wall behind them, documenting, in particular, the gallery's renovationsof the 1950s.The booklets are titled as follows: 'File of Building Renovations'; 'News Clippings, January 16, 1952 - October 13, 1953'; 'Extracts from The Mackelvie Trust by C.W.Vennell'; 'Statement by Wystan Curnow'; 'News Clippings, Current' and 'Extracts from the Minutes of the Auckland City Council Library Committee 1952 to 1954'. Each sheet of paper is placed within a plastic enclosure with these bound together in a blue-edged plastic folder. The first booklet being the exception, its pages are enclosed loosely in a manila folder with a plastic enclosure containing the title page.The archive also includes a proof sheet showing the wall niche of the gallery being filled. The 'concealed' area is on the East wall of the current Mackelvie Gallery (2011).