“What is a photobook? When does a printed and bound volume composed principally of photographs qualify as photobook? What makes it South African?”

Photo book! Photo-book! Photobook! opens with these questions from curator Sean O’Toole, who unpacks his library for the exhibition. The continuation of an ongoing research project by O’Toole, the installation is browsable and open to change. A selection of books work as coordinates; others may find themselves shifted or recalled as the exhibition progresses. A selection of artworks and boundary objects accompany the books.

“As the variant spelling of the exhibition’s title suggests, clarity and meaning around this area of bookmaking are still fluid. Rather than sermonise about what precisely constitutes a South African photobook, this browsable exhibition…presents a large and contradictory archive of photobooks made between 1945 and 2022." – Sean O'Toole

Photo book! Photo-book! Photobook! is the first exhibition to focus on the South African photobook.