From 13 September until 4 October 2025 an exhibition project on the artist's book, curated by Bruno Devos and Frederik Vergaert bringing together 50 artsits and presenting 50 unique book objects.
Opening — Saturday 13.09
14:00 - 19:00
Performance Joris Van de Moortel - 17:00 uur
Live Words & Music
By Joris Van de Moortel & Band
With: Leyla Aydoslu, Marie-Sophie Beinke, David Boon, Maxime Brigou , Michiel Ceulers, Winnie Claessens, Jana Coorevits, DD Trans, Sergio De Beukelaer, Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, Luc Deleu, Céline De Schepper, Margot Lecoutere, Stief DeSmet, Kasper De Vos, Eva Dobbels, Nico Dockx, Arpaïs Du Bois, Zoro Feigl, Robbert&Frank Frank&Robbert, Liesbeth Henderickx, Reg Herygers, Linda Jasmin Mayer, Mirthe Klück, Jóhanna Kristbjörg Sigurðardóttir, Geoffrey Lambert, Toon Leën, Tom Liekens, Bart Lodewijks, Rebekka Löffler, Emma Louise Johnson, William Ludwig Lutgens, Karen Maenhout, Bernadette Messiaen, Wesley Meuris, Flora Miranda, Gert Motmans, Marc Nagtzaam, Patrick Pleutin, Joke Raes, Subin Son, Piet Stockmans, Monique Thomaes, Adrien Tirtiaux, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Thé van Bergen, Anne Van Boxelaere, Joris Van De Moortel, Ronald Van der Hilst, Filip Van Dingenen, Kaat Van Doren, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Annelies Vanoost, Bram Van Stappen, Thomas Verstraeten, Linda Vinck, The Importance of Being.
At the same time, Adrien Tirtiaux's Chambord Staircase will be inaugurated for the first time, as will the library of the .WIT BOEK project, which will remain on display until 20 December.
From information sharing to the artist’s book,
an introduction by Rita Ferreira & Bruno Devos
The desire to create memories and share information has led to the evolution of the book over centuries: ancient writing systems like Cuneiform in Mesopotamia (3200 BCE) and Egyptian hieroglyphs, followed by the Roman codex in the 1st century AD, which replaced scrolls, set the foundation for modern books. In 1440, Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press revolutionized book production and made room for the emergence of publishers and book printers like Christopher Plantin, in the Renaissance era.
In the 20th century, artistic movements like Dadaism, Surrealism, and Conceptual Art significantly shifted the role of the book, redefining them as artworks, not just information carriers, blending visual art and conceptual experimentation. Early works such as Stéphane Mallarmé’s Un Coup de Dés jamais n’abolira le Hasard (1897) layed ground for future experimentation in book form, and later, Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-Valise (1936-1941) transformed the book into a self-contained artwork, challenging traditional boundaries of both books and art.
The Swiss artist Dieter Roth was a key figure in this field. He started experimenting with the book medium in the 1950s, as a conceptual object, playful and interactive, inviting viewers to engage with art in a deeply personal and tactile way. His experimental, constantly evolving approach to this artform was truly transformative for the genre. Later, Marcel Broodthaers took the book as an artistic medium and material statement with his Pense-Bête (1964), a collection of his own poetry encased in plaster, effectively rendering the book unreadable and transforming it into a sculptural object. Broodthaers later takes on the poetry book Un Coup de Dés (mentioned above), an abstract block-transcription of Mallarmé’s text, reflects this new conceptual way of playing with the book form, inspiring artists throughout the decades, more recently reinterpreted by Michalis Pichler, with cut-outs.
Broodthaers and Roth also pioneered self-publishing, alongside other artists-publishers from this period focused on democratizing art production and distribution. Besides artists who self-published their works, publishing houses arose to promote artists’ books and were often founded by gallery owners with this same mindset, like Antwerp based publishers Guy Schraenen éditeur and Multi-Art Press International (Paul Ibou & Liliane Staal), Yvon Lambert (Paris) and Florence Loewy (Paris).
By the 1970s, the artist’s book had gained significant traction, being unique works or published in small editions, which generated interest from collectors, ranging from individual enthusiasts in this art form to specialized art libraries which began to curate collections, preserving these works till today. In addition to libraries, specialized bookstores like Boekie Woekie (Amsterdam), also hold artists' books collections. These bookstores, founded by passionate collectors with deep personal connections to the medium, serve as cultural hubs for like-minded collectors and artists.
Clive Phillpot, writer, curator and librarian, in “Bulletin of the Art Libraries Society of North America” (Volume 1 – Number 6, December 1982)
- Book Collection of blank and/or image-bearing sheets usually fastened together along one edge and trimmed at the other edges to form a single series of uniform leaves.
- Art book Book of which art or an artist is the subject.
- Artist's book Book of which an artist is the author.
- Book art Art which employs the book form.
- Bookwork Artwork dependent upon the structure of a book.
- Book object Art object which alludes to the form of a book.
