The picture book

Z. Sutherland and M. H. Arbuthnot introduced the concept of a typology of picture books where either the illustrations or the text were predominant. Expansion and experimentation also occurred in picture books, particularly in colour printing, photographic lithography and choice of medium – there was a marked shift from black and white to full colour illustrations. In Australia in the 1970s the picture book underwent marked change and ‘came of age’ with the establishment of school libraries and a reliable and competent printing industry in nearby Asia. Picture books that self-consciously contain multiple meanings by virtue of the fact that the written text and the illustrative text combine to construct the narrative are a relatively recent development. In postmodern picture books the narrative is often told by both the author and the illustrator, and so decisions about illustrative grammar that are made by the illustrator have the potential to augment, modify or change existing meaning in the written text.