Todd Atticus

Bill Manhire’s Lyrical Ballads in the NZ bush

In the wild

Paintings wrapped in bubble wrap in the studio

Ready for installation

Hoorah for poetry indeed! Thanks Donna

Thanks Anna!

The published poetry collection Lyrical Ballads by Bill Manhire.

The published poetry collection Lyrical Ballads by Bill Manhire.

Happy publication day to Bill Manhire and your Lyrical Ballads!

Thanks to the lovely team at Supergood for the opportunity to exhibit in their beautiful space. This show is available to view by arrangement only. Please contact hello@sprgd.co for more information.

Poster for Todd Atticus' Low exhibition. White stairs descend to a blue pool.

Opening next Monday: Low, a new arrangement of works and an arrangement of new works, on show at Supergood, 1/115 Taranaki St, Wellington from 16th Feb to 15th May.

The tile reads: 'join us for the launch of Lyrical Ballads by Bill Manhire and What to Wear by Jenny Bornholdt. Wednesday 11 February, 6pm, Unity Books Wellington.' Followed by the Unity Books logo and the THWUP logo. The covers of both books are shown: Bill Manhire's book cover features a folded piece of white paper with the title written on it multiple times, Jenny Bornholdt's book cover features a white collared shirt on a hanger against a black background.

We are starting the publishing year with a major double book launch! Join us to launch two stunning new poetry collections by Bill Manhire and Jenny Bornholdt.

📖 Wednesday 11 February, 6pm
📖 Unity Books Wellington
📖 All welcome!

See you tonight!

This promises to be a very special event. Come along on Friday evening to pick up the pieces with us x

Featuring readings from Jake Arthur, 
Morgan Bach, Always Becominging, Erik Kennedy & Ashleigh Young.

This event is kindly supported and co-hosted by @thwupbooks.bsky.social and Inverlochy Art School.

Poster for the closing event of Picking up the Pieces.

Join me on the 30th for the closing night of Picking up the Pieces, my current exhibition at Inverlochy Art School.

To commemorate the end of this latest show, I have curated a line-up of incredible poets for an evening of readings that respond to the themes and ideas in the artworks.

This suite of small canvas works is Sixteen Doses, currently showing as part of Picking up the Pieces at Inverlochy Art School.

Can vulnerability be flipped on its head, or made into an opportunity? If a pill is hard to swallow, perhaps chop it up first.

Inverlochy Art School in the sunshine.

Beautiful day to open a show

Open 10-2pm today and daily until January 30th

A triple-panelled painting depicting fragile package icons in blue.

This is Handling Instructions, one of the last pieces I completed in 2025. It’s just been hung on a wall at Inverlochy Art School as part of my new show Picking up the Pieces, opening there tomorrow.

I am so sad about this. I don’t know where the adult blackbirds have gone, or how or why this happened. I’ve been so awed witnessing the parents’ dedication up close and I’m gutted that it came to nothing.

Then this evening I arrived home from a walk to discover the dead body of one of the chicks on the lawn. I rushed to where the nest is and grabbed a chair to stand on. Peering in, I saw with horror that the other chick was also dead. It was only then I realised I hadn’t heard them feeding today.

Recently I have been watching with delight a pair of blackbirds nesting in the grapevine on the veranda. A week ago some chicks hatched and the parents have been flying back and forth constantly with worms to sate their screaming young: two demanding triangle beaks poking above the twiggy rim.

Opening in two weeks.

Watch this space for news about a special closing event that I’ve been cooking up with some friends…

And if you want a peek at 2026, there's already a few covers amongst these: teherengawakapress.co.nz/collections/...

Thanks Donna! Our whole community, you included, are the legends.

No, please don’t make me!

Thank you, as always, to the wonderful publishing teams and fellow designers and creatives who have helped and inspired me this past 12 months. Publishing folk are such a lovely extended family (looking at you especially @thwupbooks.bsky.social and @johnmurrays.bsky.social!)

A stack of all the books I’ve been involved with designing that were published in 2025.

And that's a wrap for 2025. Here's every book cover I've been involved in designing that's been published this year.

Well, the spine of every book, I guess...

One more piece of wonderful news that we're bursting to share before we close up shop: we're publishing Night, Ma by Elizabeth Knox in April 2026!

@elizabethknoxnz.bsky.social
Cover: Todd Atticus, @toddatticus.bsky.social

The artworks that featured in Sala Alas were conceived and produced alongside a wider body of paintings. Picking up the Pieces will use the heritage rooms and thoroughfares of Inverlochy House to stage a new arrangement of blue works, many of which haven’t been exhibited before.

Sweeping up a broken plate

Announcing Picking up the Pieces, a sister exhibition to Sala Alas, open January 12th – 30th 2026 at Inverlochy Art School in Wellington.

The cover of the book is shown. A white paper-textured background with musical staves across it in black. Instead of musical notes, the staves have cut-out letters in black, lilac and cream colours, which spell out 'New Days for Old, James Brown.' Typed in the middle of the page in italics is 'prose poems.'

A prose poem from the book appears, in black type on a white background. It says: 'We were testing the strength of our English teacher's patience. She cheerfully swatted away Byron's dart. She made Wordsworth come inside and Coleridge return to his seat. She even laughed at the anatomical drawing on Wollstonecraft's desk, calling it 'wistful.' And she seemed unfazed by the random chirping noises coming from the cupboard behind her desk, ignoring them until the end of class. But when she lifted the latch and found Holderlin huddled inside, she turned to us with eyes blazing.

We're delighted to announce New Days for Old by James Brown, out 13 March 2026. A life story in small scenes: funny, moving, erotic, political and undeniably odd. Each scene is like a 1-minute pop song, turning our most familiar-feeling days into something altogether new.
Cover design: Todd Atticus.

‘Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia’