Series 1: Visual diaries, 1963-2002

The Collection contains 21 visual diaries and notebooks dating from 1963 to November 2002 (the year before Vali died). The visual diaries are listed in chronological order by date. The titles are mostly Vali's own titles on the diary cover or title page, as indicated. The diaries have been individually numbered H2018.427-446, H2021.36 LTBOX/MYERS Box 1-21. The 'visual diaries' are journals she kept recording events, travels, thoughts, dreams and inspirations, the progress of drawings, her favourite poets and writers with many literary references and the welfare of her animals. The diaries include her intricate handwriting, cut-out pictures as source material, sketches, photographs, magazine clippings, telgrams and mementos such as her beloved pet Fox Foxy’s fur.

Some diaries overlap in the dates they cover and span multiple years so they have been arranged as close to date order as possible. Two notebooks have been included in this sequence where they fit in date order (H2018.433 'The Dream Time Note-book of Vali Myers' – an unfinished notebook and H2018.441 'Notebook with James Joyce on the cover'). Vali often used the term 'notebook' to refer to her diaries, see H2018.440 'Vali Myers notebook' for an example. It should be noted that 'Nightflower: the life and art of Vali Myers' p. 92 gives the total number of Vali's diaries as 19. Please note that there are 2 visual diaries from the 1950s Paris years which are not on this list as they are held by the Vali Myers Art Gallery Trust. These diaries cover the years 1956-1958 and 1959-1963.

Her final diary, 'Blue Collins Notebook' H2018.446 covers September 2002 to November 2002, when Vali writes about feeling unwell in November. Her final notes and instructions were recorded in an address book when she was in Epworth hospital which is held in the Address book series in the Manuscripts collection.