I said that the Leipziger Buchmesse is the most artistic fair I have ever been to and perhaps today it is time to introduce you to why. When years ago I was told that Leipzig, not Bologna, was the place to see the art of the book, I wasn't really sure what it was about. The legends about illustrators who found their "Nobel job" in Italy are far more numerous than those about Leipzig. But... here we are talking about something else - the art of the art book. This is a much different and artistic world than the ordinary books we see in our everyday lives.
An entire section in hall 3 is dedicated to artists who work in this jewelry art. I will conditionally divide this part into three.
In the first, which is the main one, there are the so-called art books. These are works of art of sculpture and illustration, which are usually handmade and are in a very limited edition. Most authors with whom I had the pleasure of talking said that they do not make more than 10 copies, with only eight of them being advertised for sale. The price… a small format of about 10x16 cm on average starts at 250€. The techniques and ideas vary according to the creativity of the creator. Hand-bound graphic prints, various dies, cuts, bindings and formats. Some have emphasized the binding, creating a variety of surfaces and rasters, but the content is purely and simply white sheets. Others have relied on images, which, pragmatically speaking, resemble a portfolio of originals. Some artists have invited writers to provoke with their images to create a text. The set is also implemented in the idea of a limited edition, through various printing techniques – photo printing, engraving, lithography, etc., so that it joins the expressive means of the image. Various textures are also included in the layout such as rice paper, cotton sheets, foil or plaques. Of course, some authors go completely beyond the boundaries of “printing” and create frank sculptural objects (I showed you these books in Frankfurt). A large number of these artists present their books at as many events as possible, not only in Germany, but also around the world, where this type of courage is highly appreciated.
The second floor of the hall are small booths populated with various artists and their work. They present conceptual illustrations, paintings or typographic posters. Everything is for sale, and there is definitely no shortage of interested people.
The third element in the hall are the things I call "trinkets" - magnets, matches, badges, patches and stickers, cards, dolls, toys and what not. Not that there is no lack of creativity here, one definitely gets carried away by some of the little things, but the souvenir element prevails in them.
In the same hall is the book design exhibition, which includes many countries, no, I said we won't talk about Bulgaria, as this year the gold medal is from China. I will honestly admit that some books I don't see exactly what they are included in the selection for. The quick glance I took through the publications saw that some of them "suffer" from sincere impragmativity. I am surprised that elements such as very small white spaces, huge or miniature column numbers, images aligned along the knife (far left or right) are a measure of creativity. But everyone according to their taste, I am no one to argue in this case. On the other side of the pavilion was arranged an antiquarian exhibition of German publications, including some of the first Mickey Mouse comics, children's books, Hitler propaganda and many others.
Here is my old acquaintance from Frankfurt, whom I figuratively called Johannes, he performs the same tricks to his young audience. For me, however, more interesting was the old linotype machine, which I took advantage of to create a block of letters.
This is definitely the place where you can meet many creative people from “your own country” who, in a slightly different way, have discovered how to sell their art – without queues in front of publishers, without portfolios and without the bitter taste of rejection.
You can view the entire album with photos from the second day on the Facebook page of the website “Bulgarian Illustration”.
Text and photos: Milena Radeva
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