When artist John Bokor visited the Mitchell Library Reading Room during Sydney Festival a couple of years ago, he found himself more interested in the room than what he’d actually come for. A short time later, as Head of Pictures, I received a request from John for permission to draw in the Mitchell Library Reading Room ... 

While resident artists are free to work in whatever style they choose, Drawing the Library literally means that. Artists have access to most areas of the Library including many collection storage areas, so they are asked to work in dry media such as pencil, charcoal, pastel or oil crayons only to avoid spills or fumes from solvents.

Because artists look so intensely at their subject, in the Mitchell Reading Room we needed to create public awareness of the presence and role of the artist so signage was displayed on each occasion John was at work but his presence barely registered. Completely absorbed, he blended into the Reading Room’s book-lined balconies and was barely seen. While John went almost unnoticed, little that went on below went unobserved by him and not just Reading Room culture, the rituals and processes that bind us across the generations of people who have worked and studied in the Library. He watched and drew as people read and researched, daydreamed, chatted, dozed off, or flirted ...