Reading event
Second edition
Collaborators
White book


fourworldstarot
Four Worlds is a collaborative art project led by New Zealand artist Julia Morison. Morison has a longstanding interest in tarot and its connection with the Sephirotic Tree, a recurrent structure in her practice since the late 1970s. In 2023–24, Morison worked closely with Dr. Anna Smith—academic and tarot reader—to develop her own deck, digitally illustrating all 78 cards. Alice Bonifant and Harriette Herlund joined Morison and Smith in bringing the cards to life, creating a first edition of 100 decks in 2024.

This first edition was launched at the 2024 Aotearoa Art Fair, where Four Worlds hosted public tarot readings throughout the fair. The booth was facilitated by Emily Gardener Projects and Jonathan Smart Gallery, with installation design by Knight Associates. Readings were held within a purpose-built structure that displayed a selection of ceramic heads from Morison’s large body of work Head[case] (2015–2021).

In 2025, a second edition of 100 decks has been produced. Building on the success of the New Zealand event, Four Worlds will launch this new edition with a reading event at Sydney Contemporary 2025, engaging audiences with tarot readings for the duration of the fair. Hosted by Emily Gardener Projects and Jonathan Smart Gallery, the installation is again developed in collaboration with Knight Associates. The reading space will be staged within a new body of sculptural work by Morison. 

The cards not only inform and reflect Morison’s practice, but have shaped the way the Four Worlds project has evolved. Throughout its development, the collaborators have used the cards to guide creative decisions. By hosting public readings, Four Worlds extends this process to audiences, offering space for reflection on questions—creative or otherwise—within the heightened context of an art fair. The act is both intimate and disarming, creating an exchange where vulnerability and agency meet, and where the interaction between reader and participant becomes part of the artwork.

The limited second edition will be available at Sydney Contemporary as well as online. The cards are accompanied by a traditional tarot white book written by Dr. Anna Smith, offering in-depth interpretations of Morison’s imagery and providing users with a framework for their own readings [see below].


Installation at Aotearoa Art Fair 2024, photo: Jono Parker for ECC. ECC shelving.   


Reading event

A reading event will be held at Sydney Contemporary 2025, 10–15 September, if you are interested in participating in this iteration of the work, please book your place here [link will be live on 22 August 2025, 8pm]. 

Please remember the readings will take place within Sydney Contemporary, so you will need to hold a valid Sydney Contemporary ticket, for the right day, in order to gain access to the reading event. We will keep bookings open for the duration of the fair, so if you can no longer make your booking please cancel online so the space can be made available for others.

Readings will be at booth I12: Emily Gardener Projects and Jonathan Smart Gallery. 





Second edition
The second edition of Four World Tarot will be limited to 100 decks. This edition has a new card back as well as updates to several of the major arcana. It is packaged in a rigid two-piece box which also contains the white book, written by Dr. Anna Smith. 

Please register your interest in this new edition by signing up to our mailing list below. We will not share this email address, it will be used only to update you on news about the Four Worlds Tarot edition.


Collaborators

Julia Morison’s artistic practice investigates and reimagines systems of order, drawing from Euclidean geometry, constructivism, formal abstraction, alchemy, numerology, Kabbalah, and tarot. Her recent exhibition, ‘Ode to Hilma’ (City Gallery Wellington, 2024), featured ten large-scale paintings responding to Hilma af Klint’s ‘The Ten Largest’ series. Morison shares af Klint’s interest in spiritual symbolism as a shared language and in exploring myths and structures that may reside in our collective unconscious. juliamorison.nz

Dr. Anna Smith has studied and collected tarot for nearly 30 years, reading informally for friends and family while lecturing on its history and connecting with an international community of tarotists. Collaborating on Four Worlds Tarot has expanded her role, offering new ways to engage audiences at contemporary art events. Anna sees this project as an opportunity to explore how archetypes persist and transform through artistic interpretation.

Alice Bonifant, a longtime collaborator in designing Julia’s art publications, is particularly interested in the boundaries of artworks and their documentation. She sees the tarot deck as both an artwork and an art publication—one that extends Julia’s practice into a tool for further narratives and deeper audience engagement.

Harriette Herlund, a designer and tarot reader, completed her BFA (Hons) at Ilam in 2022, researching how tarot can guide the design process. Her practice challenges traditional design conventions by using tarot as a tool for deeper questioning and collaborative decision-making. For Four Worlds Tarot, she has helped shape the design of the deck and reading events while also exploring how tarot can guide the collective’s working process.

Emily Gardener Projects

Jonathan Smart Gallery Ōtautahi Christchurch.

Knight Associates is a Tāmaki-based design studio recognised for its honest, tactile approach to architecture, interiors, and experiential briefs, creating spaces with a focus on craftsmanship and material integrity.

John Christoffels, cinematographer, produced the film of Anna Smith dealing the cards. 

For any press enquiries regarding the project please contact Emily Gardener.