Collaborations + Exhibitions
Druksel 2000
Druksel 2000
Lecture and mini exhibition during Gent’s underground book fair.
• • •
Druksel in Gent (where I lived from 1989 till 2005) was a book fair for private presses, independent publishers and book artists. In 2000, they invited me to give a lecture on type design and create a small exhibition in a glass cabinet.
I was cautious. The year before, I had seen the panic in Gerard Unger’s eyes when he arrived, still very much the old-style academic, which his case of framed slides, and there was no projector. It took the organizers the best part of an hour to localize one, and by the time Gerard was ready to begin, a slightly torn sheet as his projection screen, a residue of panic was still lingering in the corners of his eyes.
So I decided to come prepared. No slides, neither analog nor digital. I asked for a washing line and brought my own clothes-pegs, plus a collection of prints, specimens, brochures, posters, and records. During my lecture I hung them all on the washing line – the room was small enough for all to see. It was a very wise decision, for it would have been a major enterprise to darken the room, with its high windows and no curtains, to project slides.
Afterwards I showed some additional material on my impressive orange (I think the official colour name was: tangerine) iBook Clamshell, which had recently been bestowed upon me by my new clients, FontShop Benelux.
I filled the vitrine with recent samples of Dutch and Belgian typographic research and type design.
Photos by Catherine Dal