The handling required to fully grasp a artists book or artistic book cover touches all senses and always reminds me of a Japanese tea ceremony, where it is important to take your time and open up to be able to fully appreciate all the details – the gentle sliding of the book from the slipcase, where you feel the slight air pressure that slowly releases the book – the barely noticeable transitions between different materials and the slightly curved shape of the book body that seems to adapt to the hands, the delicate reliefs and embossing that barely sharpen the sense of touch – the careful turning of the pages and feeling of the paper surface and color on it – reading, viewing the images and typography, discovering the uniqueness and details, absorbing the smells of the materials used, linking content and design – association, stimulation, inspiration … It can be an almost cult-like situation when one removes a book from its container and opens it to immerse themselves in a mental space, carried by the book object with all its dimensions. With simultaneous precision and ease, I lead through my microcosm as a book artist and find myself in a highly civilized, social, interpersonal encounter with the viewers of my work, where the encounter with me as an artist seems almost as important as with my books. I try to convey the appreciation of insights that I draw from the wealth of seemingly banal everyday things, with the aim of sharpening the attention of the viewers.
About my work method
I am fascinated by places and stories. I go on a search, collect impressions, images, and stories, find traces, fragments, and objects and approach the respective themes through my associations and insights that I write and draw. My artist books and other artistic works serve to store, preserve, and focus and give me the opportunity to reorder and interpret. They show my perspective on the things that surround me and fascinate me.
During the work process, I am always directly influenced by the place where I work, whether it is working on an artist book, a book cover, a text, a graphic, an object, or an installation. The places provide impulses that I pick up, develop, and further develop. These can be, for example, scents, colors, text fragments, surfaces, forms that stand out, things that are different – breaks and friction points – whether positively or negatively charged. Often it is also conversations that start it. These impulses inspire me, help me find a theme to focus on with the corresponding form of expression, technique, and material for the implementation.
I aim for a delicate, almost perfect craftsmanship with a very reduced form language. I use different materials and techniques that I approach experimentally and further develop. The experiments often serve as a starting point and give me the opportunity to focus on various themes from new perspectives and explore them and find the implementation that is right for me. One of my main themes, which has accompanied me for many years, is happiness.