Margaret Mahy ONZ (1936-2012) is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s best-loved young person’s authors; a literary hero to generations of young Kiwi. Published in 2009, The Word Witch collected together the total of Margaret’s known poetic output – sourced from picturebooks, school publications, magazines, anthologies, and her own private papers – spanning a period of over fifty years.

Margaret’s seemingly boundless imagination and her ability to spin up vivid imagery of fantastical occurrences is perfectly complimented by Whakatere Ashburton-born illustrator David Elliot’s capacity for capturing the liveliness of her verse.

In this exhibition, illustrations accompanying some of the more outlandish of the book’s poems are presented – both the working and completed drawings outline the imaginative thought processes involved in providing the visual accompaniment to the rich literary worlds Margaret conjured.

Main image: David Elliot, Goodness Gracious, 2008/2009, mixed media illustration on paper

Left image: David Elliot, The Flingamago, 2008/2009, mixed media illustration on paper