Deb Huff is an artist and illustrator based in Perth, known for her character-rich drawings that bring heritage buildings and their hidden stories to life. Her work blends illustration with research and storytelling, capturing the personality, quirks and layered histories of places that might otherwise be overlooked. Deb’s illustrations have appeared in public art installations across Australia, including the lightboxes of Lightbox Lane in Albury (NSW) and Yagan Square’s digital tower in Perth, as well as group exhibitions with Brunswick Street Gallery and Red Gallery (Melbourne), and The Side Gallery (Brisbane). In 2024, she held her first solo exhibition, Building Nostalgia, in partnership with Temp Gallery at the historic London Court in Perth. Her first book was Building Stories: Perth.
Description
Tasmania’s architectural history is full of intense, complicated stories. These walls have housed convicts and clergy, brewers and booksellers, artists and agitators. They’ve been built from sandstone and ship timber, shaped by isolation, industry, ambition and punishment. Some still stand proudly. Others carry their history more quietly, in worn thresholds, crooked staircases and stories passed over a bar or across a counter. Building Stories: Tasmania is a richly and quirkily illustrated wander through the island’s most character-filled places, from working waterfronts and former hydro sites to pubs, bookshops, hotels, theatres and small-town main streets. These are buildings that have adapted, endured and reinvented themselves, carrying traces of every version of Tasmania they’ve lived through along the way.
1. Introduction
2. Power and Industry
3. Where Hobart Learned to Trade
4. At the Edge of the Map
5. Beyond the Cities
6. Street Life and Small Details
7. Bookshops and Backstories
8. Culture and Performance
9. How the City Was Shaped
10. Convicts and Ghosts
11. From Stone to Spirits
About the Author and Acknowledgements
Building/establishment Indexes