As Australians prepare to commemorate 100 years since the Anzac landing at Gallipoli, Charles Sturt University (CSU) academics and artists are reflecting on the impact of the war on those left behind on the home front.

In the exhibition Loss, reverence and longing: Anzac stories from the home front, the artists have drawn inspiration for their work from everyday things from rural Australian households during the Great War.

The exhibition is a joint project between CSU, the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery.

Co-curator, exhibitor and lecturer in creative arts and design at CSU's School of Communication and Creative Industries Ms Julie Montgarrett said the exhibition features objects from the collection Pioneer Women's Hut at Tumbarumba.

"The trauma is there in small objects, a shrapnel brooch and a chocolate box, that's where the loss of sons, brothers, fathers and uncles, becomes tangible. A grief often 'owned' too many times in the one family," she said.

"The artists have responded to this year's Anzac centenary by creating significant new works that reflect the often denied or overlooked, yet profound, experiences of those on both the home front and those who left home and returned broken."

An essay in the catalogue by CSU lecturer in art history and visual culture Dr Sam Bowker shares a personal story of how the death of his great grand-uncle Alwynne Stanley ('Stan') Bowker at Gallipoli affected his family.

Dr Bowker writes, "Stories like these feature in many Australian family histories. They are oral histories of wasted talent and a loss of purpose that do not translate to the earnest language of cenotaphs, official art, or public war memorials."

Other CSU staff, students and graduates featured in the exhibition include:

Emeritus Professor David Green

Lecturer in photography Mr Christopher Orchard

Senior lecturer in art history and visual culture Dr Neill Overton

Adjunct senior lecturer in English Mr David Gilbey

Graduate Mr Jacob Raupach

PhD graduate Dr Annette Brown

CSU student Mr Vic McEwan

CSU student and Wiradjuri Elder Aunty Lorraine Tye

CSU student Ms Linda Elliott

"Hopefully this exhibition of objects and artist's works can present an open subversive honesty of quiet alternatives to stand against narrow Remembrance to challenge our closed patriotic assumptions of commemoration," said Ms Montgarrett. "Art works should evoke all human experiences, speak to difficult things as much as they recall joy."

The exhibition, Loss, reverence and longing: Anzac stories from the home front is at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Morrow Street in Wagga Wagga until Sunday 31 May. It is curated by CSU's Ms Montgarrett and Ms Linda Elliot from the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery.