From the Foreword by Noel Waite: "Presented as the inaugural annual Verso Lectures at Melbourne's Athehaeum Library in 2016 and commissioned by Verso magazine, the Lectures are designed to enrich the cultural and intellectual reputation of the Book as a viable part of the history of cultural life in Australia and New Zealand. The tangible and visual art of the book and the intangible craft processes which inform its creation are subjected to a nuanced interrogation of the book's signature role in the life of its maker, the community of relationships its making and re-making entails, and its wider role in our cultural and intellectual life."

The lectures: "The book: material instrument" by Alan Loney; "Books as treasure" by Sheree Kinlyside; "Channelling the departed: the book and time" by Marion Crawford.