2026 Printers in Residence Announcement: Brigitta Summers and Monica Oppen

The Library is delighted to announce artists Brigitta Summers and Monica Oppen as our 2026 Printers in Residence. Monica and Brigitta each bring their own individual experiences as artists working across printmaking, as well as their personal relationship as mother and daughter. This will be their first time formally collaborating, and also marks the first time the Library has had a duo for our annual Printer in Residence program.

Brigitta and Monica will work in the Print Studio (Fisher Library, level 1) from August to October 2026; they’ll also work with the Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections as part of their research. Keep an eye out for updates on their project, as well as opportunities to engage with their work.

About the project

“Through the medium of the political protest poster, we intend to translate the fossil fuel industry’s climate disinformation into a visual language and pit the facts against the crap. It has been known since the 1960s, from research undertaken by the fossil fuel industry itself, that the burning of fossil fuels leading to increased levels of atmospheric CO2 will cause global warming, leading to catastrophic weather events. Fossil fuel companies have engaged in a systematic strategies to obfuscate and downplay the issue through ongoing disinformation campaigns and continuous government lobbying. We will point the finger at the fossil fuel industry – and the Australian Government’s complicity – to say j’accuse…!”

– Brigitta and Monica

About Monica Oppen

Since completing her arts education at East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School) and the College of Fine Art (UNSW) majoring in printmaking, Monica’s art practice has centred on the book. In the 1980s, Monica learnt hand bookbinding, and for the last 30 years she has been working as an artist/printmaker producing books both solo and in collaboration with other artists.

Monica worked across a variety of techniques in her pursuit of getting text onto a page, including handwriting, lino-cutting, etching, rubber stamping and digitally printing. Recently, she has turned to letterpress and acquiring sets of wood type.

Monica’s work has been exhibited extensively and is held in many collections, including the University of Sydney Library, the State Library of NSW, and the National Library of Australia. Monica is a long-term member of the Print Council of Australia and is currently the president of the NSW Guild of Craft Bookbinders.

About Brigitta Summers

Brigitta is an emerging artist working primarily in print, living and working on Gadigal Country. Her practice is concerned with the conceptual function of print as a technology for creating knowledge, particularly looking at how images and print can shape and inform our experience of the environment. Recent works have explored this through haptic touch and the deconstruction of the image through the halftone to offer embodied experiences of print that involve the viewer in a world shared with plants.

Brigitta completed a Bachelor of Arts in History and German (University of Oxford), a Bachelor of Fine Arts (National Art School) and most recently a Master of Fine Arts at Sydney College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited across Sydney in exhibitions, including at Chrissie Cotter Gallery and Curl Curl Creative Space.