Art

Lous Martens has five grandchildren – Jaap, Zeno, Anna, Julian, and Luca – and has begun making an animal scrapbook for each newcomer to the family. Although it is seventeen years since the first, Jaap, was born, none of the five books are finished yet. Consisting of loosely pasted pictures of animals that were clipped from newspapers and magazines about art, literature, and science, plus stamps and photographs from advertising brochures, the books are enjoyable for their small, ever-evolving changes as new material is added. Interestingly, the books were never intended to be published, but are now grouped into one big volume, an embodiment of familial love and dedication.

‘Meadow’ is part of the Occupy Mars project conducted by Pauline Julier and Clément Postec, which sees Mars as a mirror of Earth at the dawn of the new age of space exploration, extractivism, and colonialism. Through a series of films, publications, and public discussions, it bridges multiple alternative perspectives that question both past and future to bring new narratives to the fore and give insurgent voices a platform. A first exploration took place in the Atacama Desert in Chile, where the training sites for NASA's rovers are located next to one of the largest lithium mines in the world. Published on the occasion of Julier’s exhibition near the Mauvoisin Dam in Switzerland.

Batia Suter’s work intuitively situates found images in new contexts to provoke surprising reactions and significative possibilities. This volume follows on from the first ‘Parallel Encyclopedia’, published in 2007. Underlying themes of Suter’s practice are the “iconification” and “immunogenicity” of old images, and the circumstances by which they become charged with new associative values. “In my work, I collect groups of images based on various themes and characteristics, and I investigate how they can manipulate each other, depending on where and how they are placed. In the process of making this book, narrative lines unfolded before my eyes as I shifted images around.” This is a revised reprint.

Published on the occasion of a solo show by Willem Oorebeek at WIELS in Brussels, this richly illustrated book presents re-readings of fifty years’ work and the materiality of production. These are numbered according to recollection, organised under headings, and translated from Dutch to English. The translations are coloured by two years of conversation with editor/designer Will Holder –accounting for ambiguity, rabbit-holes, and an [un]conscious preference for “quasi-” “ofschoon...” “enzovoort.” Repetition, alliteration, and other material, musical and metric devices are placed on the page, quite intentionally, designed “an sich” to facilitate memory and recall.

Batia Suter’s work intuitively situates found images in new contexts to provoke surprising reactions and significative possibilities. ‘Parallel Encyclopedia’, which she conceived between 2004 and 2007, contains a precise composition of numerous images taken solely from other books. Significant underlying themes expressed in the Amsterdam-based, Swiss artist’s practice are the “iconification” and “immunogenicity” of old images, and the circumstances by which they assume or become charged with new associative values. This is a reprint of Suter’s voluminous book, originally published in 2007 and covering a pictorial plethora of human history, science, philosophy, art, and culture.

Originally published in 2010, ‘On the Self-Reflexive Page’ is part artist’s book and part essay, part literary excavation and part typographical miscellany. For this second incarnation of Louis Lüthi’s anthology of thematically arranged pages, the original material has been significantly expanded and revised. Like its predecessor, the new version proposes a typology of nonverbal elements found in novels, short stories, and essays. In each of the pages reproduced here, the prose is interrupted by one of these nonverbal elements, from black or blank pages, drawings or collages, photographs or film stills, to fragments of text or visual poems that are distinct from a conventional page layout.

The chipboard lies at the heart of James Beckett's installation and book, ’The Sceptical Structures of Max.’ Invented by industry magnate Max Himmelheber (1904–2000) in the spirit of frugality and economy, the chipboard accounts for 80% of material in globally-produced furniture now. Using chipboard salvaged from the streets of Amsterdam, the artist explores the relationship between industrial production and human behaviour. This books includes excerpts of Himmelheber’s writings from his quarterly journal ‘Scheidewege’ on unusual topics such as boy scouting, Shintoism, and environmentalism, as well as a conversation between Dirk van Weelden and the Zimbabwean-born artist.

Bart Lodewijks undertook a series of lined chalk drawings in the halls and rooms of a care home for the elderly in Merelbeke, Belgium. But when the global pandemic broke out in March 2020, the living centre had to be closed to outsiders. During this time, he continued his drawings at places where the residents had once lived or worked. Later, after they were moved to a brand-new facility, the artist continued adding chalk textures and shapes to the walls, now in colour. This three-part narrative of Merelbeke comes with ‘Naar Watou toe’, a collaboration of Lodewijks and Jan Kempenaers in anticipation of a yearly arts festival at a small Belgian town near the French border.

Dutch artist Kees Goudzwaard (Utrecht, 1958) lives and works in the cities of Antwerp (B) and Reusel (NL). Goudzwaard's abstract work is very appealing. He translates models into abstractions. With coloured sheets of paper Goudzwaard manages to make the translation from model to canvas without losing the original thought. The use of sticky-tape is another recurring theme. The basic materials the artist uses do not automatically result in simplistic work, the contrary is true; the intricateness of the creations is surprising and intriguing.