Jazmina Cininas | The Stars Woo Salme to the Clouds with the Language of Birds (2018). Artist book with inlaid cover and belly band. Collage from vintage Estonian reference, used business envelopes. 20.5 x 81 x 11cm (open) | Courtesy the artist and Australian Galleries, Melbourne.

This book references an episode within the Estonian epic poem Kalevipõeg, in which the beautiful human girl Salme marries the Prince of the Stars, and leaves her earthly home to live with him amongst the clouds. Salme was hatched from a grouse egg, while her sister, Linda, began life as a hen and a third girl, their servant, had originally been a raven. In the tale, Salme refuses marriage proposals from both the Sun and the Moon, before agreeing to take the Prince of the Stars as her husband. Each of her suitors arrive with a retinue of 60 horses. The vintage collage material was sourced during an artist residency at the Estonian Printing and Paper Museum, Tartu, in 2017, and has been supplemented with used business envelopes. The three-tier concertina structure can be displayed in a circle, and is commonly referred to as a star book.