Bacteria Books’ Lora Ward on Connection & Community

Photography by Ari Messina

For our last Journal interview of the year, we pay a special visit to Lora Ward and the creative ‘ecosystem’ she has imagined, together with her business Bacteria Books, Brær and Marsh Workwear titled: Garden Kiosk. Located in the Northern Rivers, the brick and mortar space offers floral art, books, workwear and respite to locals and visitors of this thriving surf town. This week our well-read subject shares what ignited her passion for the written word, and how it led her all the way from New York to Byron Bay. 

“I am a designer and Art Director based in the Northern Rivers. After spending some years living and working abroad in NYC, a city deeply enmeshed in the world of books, I returned to Australia and noticed a space for independent publishing within the community in Byron Bay. Bacteria Books became my way of contributing to culture and fostering connections among creatives and artists.”

“The journey began as a nomadic bookstand housed in a photo lab and later a gallery. Over time, it evolved naturally into a space dedicated to book curation, publishing, distribution, seasonal store and a salon series named Seaweed Salon. Bacteria Books is a culmination of my search for the unexpected—a process for discovery, connection, and exploration.”

Bacteria Books is a culmination of my search for the unexpected—a process for discovery, connection, and exploration.

“I grew up in a single-parent household with a hippy mother and no TV, so from a young age, I had to find my means of entertainment and reading often filled this plain. I have always been very visual, so it was a natural progression to veer into the physicalities of creativity. Later in life, reading has played a significant role in my creative process, helping me dive deeper conceptually into new ideas and emotional experiences. I am grateful to have access to an abundant library of knowledge that can guide my creative practices in such a symbiotic way.”

Reading has played a significant role in my creative process, helping me dive deeper conceptually into new ideas and emotional experiences.

“Garden Kiosk came about organically and has felt very creatively aligned from the onset. An evolution of Bacteria Books’ 2023 ‘Dolphin Kiosk’ with Shop Jume, the Garden Kiosk marks a new season of collaboration between Braer, Marsh Workwear, and Bacteria Books. Inspired by nature and ecology, the space merges floral art, a bookstore, and carefully crafted workwear. The space has become a gathering space for events, workshops and conversation—a community ecosystem of sorts.”

“The community has had a really interesting shift since I moved here [to Byron Bay] 8 years ago. With Covid came an influx of creatives returning home from overseas or metropolitan escapists. It was a very creative, soul-stirring time when I finally felt and fostered the deep creative connectivity that I had yearned for in the area. This strong undercurrent still exists here. There is a great, mycorrhizal-type network of friends and creatives that foster endless support for one another, and I have felt that immensely with the Kiosk and the Seaweed Salon events I have been hosting. For me, generally, the greatest influences still come from stepping outside of the paradisiacal bubble; it’s what you can bring back and formulate into your existence where the real sorcery unfolds in this magical place.”

“The library consulting sector of the business has been fascinating to explore. It initially came about when I was brought on by the Sun Seeker in Byron Bay to build out their lobby library. It has since evolved to in-room reading for hotels and accommodations and curation for brands' in-store book offerings.”

“It has been such a wonderful experience to contribute to this space for the community to engage with. Azzmin and Tomi have worked tirelessly to bring some wonderful events and workshops to the Kiosk this year, including a seasonal seed-raising workshop, a dead fish and flower painting workshop, beginner and advanced ikebana, a Pear Reading Series, and the ancient custom of Shimekazari wreath making.

“In terms of future events, watch this space!”

Finally, we asked Lora to share three books that were on her bedside...

Max Lamb — Inventory Works

I have always been a huge fan of Max Lamb’s eclectic but conceptually rich designs. He can make a collection of diverse objects and furniture sit in a cohesive grouping, which comes down to his deeply experimental and conceptual thinking. As the title suggests, this book covers 19 years of Lamb’s works and was published on the occasion of Inventory at Salon 94 in New York. The book has French-folded pages, encouraging the reader to get a sharp knife and slice through a transcendental journey of new and archival imagery and contributed writings.

Ana Mendieta — Search for Origin

A monograph of the late Ana Mendieta, a Cuban-American artist known for her powerful earth-body works which explore themes of identity, exile, feminism, and the connection between the human body and the natural world. The works, informed by her research into primitive myths and rock art, reveal her relationship to the visible and invisible. It explores her ability to make the unspeakable intelligible through traces of the body and its connections to nature. Ana Mendieta was the late wife of American artist Carl Andre, who fell to her death from a window in 1985, three months after they were married. Andre was charged with and later acquitted of her murder.

On the Necessity of Gardening: An ABC of Art, Botany and Cultivation, edited by Laurie Cluitmans

This excellent book takes a meander through an encyclopedic pathway of off-kilter ecological terminologies. The beauty of posing something alphabetically is that it takes you on an unexpected journey and constellational study of cross-disciplinary subjects such as Microcosm – Miracle Garden – Moss. A splattering of illustrations and artworks accompanies the publication, and masterfully written essays reflecting the garden as a metaphor for society and rethinking nature’s role as we currently engage with it. The bible of the Garden Kiosk!

Garden Kiosk can be found at 11 Banksia Drive, Byron Bay.