Peter Batey, the founder of the Bald Archy Prize, says veteran arts writer Fran Henke phoned him earlier in the year and asked if he was aware there was a new book out about the Archibalds.

"I said, 'No' and she said, 'Why don't we do one?"'

He agreed, but says, "I didn't want it to be just a coffee-table book."

It features a history of the Bald Archy Prize, interviews with winning artists, essays on satire, and a rare interview with Maude, the mysterious sulphur-crested cockatoo who judges the prize each year.

"She's particularly proud of her online PhD from the Marilyn Munro University of Little Rock."

And, of course, there are colour pictures of all the winning portraits (and some others), from the very first, Rocco Fazzari's Yuk! Mr Edmund Capon to this year's Peter Batey and J.F. Archibald Photobomb by Xavier Ghazi.

"The purpose, I suppose, is just as a record and a celebration of the whole thing," Batey says. One of the reactions from people who have seen the book, he says, is chuckling over memories of a particular painting and being reminded of it, and expressing pleasure that all the winners can now all be seen in one place.

The Bald Archy Prize began in 1994 as part of the Coolac Festival of Fun – an arts festival but not called that because, Batey says, nobody from the Coolac region, near Gundagai, would have come. Batey had worked for decades in the theatre in various capacities – among the highlights was working on several shows with Reg Livermore including The Betty Blokk Buster Follies – and was still deeply interested in the arts. He decided that since the Archibald Prize was "particularly pompous" at that time, as part of the festival he would spoof the event by calling for portraits of a comic or satirical nature. And instead of the Board of the Gallery of New South Wales, he would enlist a cockatoo, Maude, to judge their aesthetic merit.

"It was only intended to be a one-off," Batey says. But although it was small – 16 entries and a prize of $500 – the Bald Archy proved to have staying power and this year attracted 87 entries competing for a $10,000 first prize. It also goes on tour, including to Canberra, where in recent years it has been exhibited at Watson Arts Centre.

The Bald Archy subject criteria are similar to the Archibald – subjects have to be well known Australians in fields such as culture, politics, business, sport and medicine. And it has to be comic or satiric, but Batey says Maude "usually chooses a picture with some depth, some thought-provoking comment. What she doesn't like are artists who use the competition as a soapbox, conveying hate for a particular person."

Batey has noticed that whoever tends to be big in the news in a particular year tends to be featured heavily in the subject matter of the Bald Archy Prize.

"Last year it was Mr [Clive] Palmer, this year it was Jacqui Lambie," he says.

Prominent politicians always feature heavily and he wonders, given the attention paid to former speaker Bronwyn Bishop recently, if she will turn up in many paintings next year.

"We shall see what happens."

Among his own favourites has been the 2008 winner, The Official Portrait of the Danish Royal Family, by James Brennan.

"It has its compositional basis in a family portrait of the Gainsborough period," he says, almost sounding like an Archibald judge for a moment. But a look at the painting itself, with its scantily clad royals engaged in a variety of behaviours that would not normally be considered regal, drives away any fears of creeping pretentiousness in the Bald Archy Prize.

It's an acquisitive award and Batey has for some time been trying to find a home for his collection of the winners and to ensure the longevity of the prize beyond him.

"I'm 82," he says.

"Maude will go on – cockatoos live to about 99."

But he hasn't yet found an institution ready to take the paintings or to carry on his work.

"The reason seems to be it doesn't fit into whatever regulation for a bequest, was the recent response from the National Portrait Gallery."

But he's still trying. Perhaps the book will help spark some new interest. And in the meantime, there's another Bald Archy Prize to organise.

"It's fun."

In Yer Face: The Bald Archy Prize by Peter Batey and Fran Henke is available from the National Library of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, Paperchain Bookstore Manuka and Watson Arts Centre for $30. It will be launched on Sunday, October 11 at Paperchain at 3pm.