Plan and Play, Play and Plan

Defining Your Art Practice

Book coverPlan and Play, Play and Plan
Book coverPlan and Play, Play and Plan
Book coverPlan and Play, Play and Plan
Book coverPlan and Play, Play and Plan

This book is a manual for artists. It teaches you not how to make art, but how you can set up your artistic practice. Author Janwillem Schrofer, from 1982 until 2010 director of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, has a ‘grown-up conversation’ about the management of inspiration – the entrepreneurial side of being an artist – with, yes, diagrams, analytical models and assignments, such as: ‘Discuss with a colleague, fellow student or friend what was your very worst experience of collaboration’. The relationship between a ‘management book for the artist’ and the whole concept of what being an artist is all about is naturally an uneasy one, but designer Laura Pappa, like Schrofer, simply steps over it unconcerned. The diagrams, tables, tips and exercises are set out neatly in two colours, blue and orange. A simple paperback, a cover with something of the feel of cloth; humble paper: it’s all a broad wink in the direction of management books. There’s a nice little joke: extending over the entire inside of the cover the word ‘Artist’ appears, very large but divided by the book block into ‘Art’ and ‘ist’. The binding too – cold glue here – is simple and unsophisticated. However, the choice of the very supple paper and board produces a book that feels good in the hand and lies open nicely – and is thus easy to read. Should the student artist ever wonder despairingly where the art is to be found in this world of positioning and business know-how, there are some fine contributions from artists – including crisp full colour images of genuine art – offer a nice escape.

Edition: 2018
Date of publication: May 2018
Author: Janwillem Schrofer
Language: English
Translator: Wendy van Os-Thompson
Final editor: Els Brinkman
Publisher: Valiz, Amsterdam
Available through: Webshop, bookshop, museumshops, eigen webshop
Graphic designer: Laura Pappa (Amsterdam)
Lithographer: Wilco Art Books (Mariska Bijl), Amsterdam
Printer: Bariet Ten Brink, Meppel
Binder: Bariet Ten Brink, Meppel
Book producer: Valiz, Amsterdam
Size book block (w x h x d in mm): 155 x 220 x 18
Number of pages: 288
Print run: 2,000
Price: € 19.90
ISBN: 978 94 92095 40 4
Font and foundry: Neue Haas Unica (Monotype), Caslon (Linotype)
Binding style: Sewn soft cover with flaps, cold-glued.
Paper for interior (grammage): 85gsm Arcoprint Milk White 1.5, Arctic Paper | AntalisFedrigoni
Material cover (grammage): 200gsm Invercote G, structured lamination on the binding (applied by Bron Briljant), Igepa