Our history

For over 35 years Piper Press has showcased leading Australian artists and art writers through books that are meticulously designed and edited to make contemporary art accessible and inspiring for all. Piper Press titles are distributed to booksellers across Australia and New Zealand by NewSouth Books.

Founders Margaret Bishop and John Dunn had successful careers in art education and curriculum development when they established Piper Press, seeing a need to represent the under-represented: women artists, and mid-career and Indigenous artists through quality publications and partnerships with galleries, curators, academics and respected writers. Among their first works were those on then-emerging artists Tracey Moffatt and Fiona Hall in the 1990s.

Specialising in beautifully produced artist monographs, Piper Press has published illustrated non-fiction books on many of Australia's successful artists including Tracey Moffatt, Fiona Hall, Del Kathryn Barton, Julie Rrap, Patricia Piccinini, Rosemary Laing, Bronwyn Oliver, William Robinson, Euan Macleod and more. We have also published books on architecture, photography and photographers, Asian art, and the performing arts. They were instrumental in the Save Our Sirius campaign in which thousands of people were mobilised to prevent the destruction of the notable Sirius building in Millers Point, Sydney. In raising awareness for the campaign, John and Margaret helped to curate an art exhibition, regular events and marches, and published SIRIUS: a beautiful book to document the character and lives of the people who live there. The campaign saved the building and raised awareness about the continued need for well designed social housing in Sydney.

SIRIUS is now an essential aspect of architectural education and a demonstration of architectural activism. The book was awarded the NSW Australian Institute of Architects 2020 Adrian Ashton Prize for Architectural Culture & Literature and was a Finalist for the National Gallery of Victoria's International Cornish Family Prize for Art and Design Publishing. With the global pandemic behind us, we look forward to an exciting future.

Our focus

Piper Press takes a keen interest in women artists, Indigenous Australian artists, both emerging and established artists, contemporary and Asian art, architecture and design, photography, art practice and art history. 

We work on custom publications for galleries, architectural firms and artists with the benefit of an excellent distribution partner in New South Books, to ensure great books reach readers in good quality bookshops.

2023 onwards

In late 2023, Piper Press embarked on its next phase with new owners and long-time friends: Alexei Mazin and Kathryn Franco. Under the skilled stewardship of Margaret and John during this transition, Piper Press will continue to work with its valued artists, writers and partners to grow and include new artist monographs, while expanding architecture, design and photography publications.

Alexei Mazin attended National Art School in Sydney and trained in painting, printmaking, photography, art theory and history. He is a Wynne Prize finalist (1973). He graduated from City Art Institute/University of New South Wales and completed post graduate studies in teaching at Alexander Mackie College and University of Sydney. He was a visual arts educator for over 20 years, an art history specialist and tutor at the University of Sydney and lecturer at Australian Catholic University. He turned his interest to photography and video production as the Head of Film and Video at KvB College and opened the Avid Training Centre in Sydney for non-linear editing by the mid 1990s. Alexei has been an entrepreneur and technologist in the video and broadcast field for the past 20+ years and looks forward to immersing himself in arts publishing.

Kathryn Franco studied art history and theory, film theory and philosophy in the Fine Arts Department of  the University of Sydney and gained a 1st Class Honours Degree in Arts for her thesis on Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World (1993). She has worked across media, content and technology in film, television news and current affairs, retail creative and editorial, Internet marketing and e-commerce. She began her work as an assistant at Kennedy Miller Film Company undertaking post production coordination, script review and script editing. She was a researcher and producer at the Nine Network’s Sunday Program producing the weekly Film Reviews by Peter Thompson, cover stories, and music segments. She was approached to join NineMSN in a shift to online news publishing and published Sunday, Business Sunday and the Small Business Show online until moving into other forms of Internet media, content development, product and general management. She gained a Masters in Business Administration specialising in strategy and general management, from the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales. Having always regarded writing as a key interest, and integral to her professional career, she is looking forward to supporting the development of new titles. She is a Webby Award Winner and W3 Award Winner.