be here is our most controversial pick of the litter, the typography feels a little on the boring side, but the book as an object really brings it home. The feeling you have while looking through an almost fan-like object, with each page being a registration of a work by Herman de Vries, the book celebrates the artist’s 90th birthday. The whole project questions what it is to be a book, the binding is unconventional, the printing, being RISO, has an analog charm, and the finishing touch is the poem inside the backboard of the book. By pressing a little gold sticker de vries himself reads a poem to you.
be here
Edition: 2023
Date of publication: July 2023
Language: English
Translator: Jenny Wilson
Photographer: Robert Mulder et al.
Artist: herman de vries
Publisher: ARTisBOOK collab Block C, Groningen
Graphic designer: herman de vries guerrilla art group (Groningen)
Lithographer: Letterpress Minerva Art Academy Finn van der Ziel, Groningen
Printer: Letterpress Minerva Art Academy Finn van der Ziel, Groningen
Binder: herman de vries guerrilla art group, Groningen
DTP: herman de vries guerrilla art group, Groningen
Size book block (w x h x d in mm): 85 x 35 x 300
Number of pages: 90
Print run: 216
Price: € 29
Font and foundry: Futura
Binding style: Using a book screw
Special features: An audio chip is built into the last thickened page (of foam). By pressing the golden dot you can hear the poem my poet is the world voiced by herman de vries; the itle is in blind embossing. As in all herman de vries's work, this book is set in Futura and no capitals have been used, because, according to herman de vries, there is no hierarchy between things. The book is bound with a book screw that can be loosened and tightened to keep the pages in the fan turning smoothly.