Avis au lecteur

Ce serait beau, trop beau,
de pouvoir confier ses sentiments
et ses opinions à un livre.
 

Jan Vercruysse, Spleen de Hambourg (1983), 1985

Avis au lecteur highlights artworks by Jan Vercruysse (1948 – 2018) that were not really made for a museum but call for an alternative recipient: the reader.

In the late 1970s, Vercruysse resolutely moved from creating poetry to creating art, with visual works that unfolded over a series, such as Portretten van de Kunstenaar (1977 – 1984), Atopies (1985 – 1987) and Tombeaux (1988 – 1994). Yves Gevaert’s publishing house, however, would allow the artist to create a parallel oeuvre of books and prints during the 1980s and 1990s in the margins of his principal body of work. Anton and Annick Herbert recognised the importance of these published works to Vercruysse’s oeuvre and both followed and collected this sidetrack attentively.

As a book lover who finds himself making printed matter, Vercruysse will not only work with language, but also more explicitly address his love of literature and the art of printing. The radicality of Vercruysse’s bookworks lies in its subversion of the patterns with which we distinguish between word and image, books and artworks, writers and artists, literature and visual arts.

Avis au lecteur offers an opportunity for readers/viewers to discover a new side to Jan Vercruysse’s art. The exhibition brings together an ensemble of bibliophile artworks and bookworks, in adherence with the artist’s vision on exhibiting art which you should be able to read.

An exhibition realised in collaboration with Nikolaas Verstraeten.
 

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Jan Vercruysse, ‘Avis au lecteur’, preface to Spleen de Hambourg (1983), 1985, Brussels: Yves Gevaert Éditeur