Writing was central to Walter’s artistic practice and worldview. He produced more than 50,000 surviving typewritten and handwritten pages and notes on history, genealogy, philosophy, and political science in the form of poems, autobiographical texts, plays, treatises, and manifestos. In addition, he recorded more than 440 hours of tapes expounding on these subjects as well as performing originally composed songs, lyrics, music, and plays.

Among the papers are notebooks that relay his thought processes and varied interests; sketches; ephemera relating to his experiences in Europe; papers on the founding of his political party and his campaign for prime minister; correspondence; portrait photography ledgers; editorial proofs of his self-published book Sons of Vernon Hill (Vantage Press, 1987); and writings about his innovations as an early environmentalist.

The lines are frequently blurred between Walter’s artwork and writing, making his papers an extension of his artistic practice. His Mosquito Coil series, created on the reverse side of mosquito coil boxes, combines writing on a variety of topics with his interest in using everyday materials, a defining characteristic of his approach to art making. Similar to his Polaroid landscape paintings, Walter’s handwritten autobiographical Polaroid series uses cardstock from the Polaroid film boxes that supplied his photographic work. Correspondence—including fully fledged exhibition proposals as well as architectural plans for his home and studio—offer important insights into his creative process. His Envelope series transforms over 2,000 carefully cut open and flattened envelopes into typewritten pages filled with his musings on art, genealogy, and philosophy, including an essay titled “The Value of Art” and a poignant eulogy honouring his uncle Stanley Walter.