Once described as ‘small explosions of intelligence and sensation,
the seeds of wonder’ by poet Thomas A. Clark, the eschenau summer
press publications stretch the definition of ‘artist’s book’ as far as
it will go. Since 1974, from his home in Eschenau, Germany, renowned
artist herman de vries (1931) sends out leaves of gold, the dust of
some roads, the forbidden down of thistles. A longtime key figure in
the book-as-art himself, most of these publications are the result of
an open invitation from de vries to artist friends like James Lee Byars,
Marinus Boezem and Melanie Bonajo, but also to poets and musicians
– even to a keeper of bumble bees.
This book facilitates our reception of all 77 of these shared objects
through full illustrations and written clarification. Two essays connect
the series to the international context of the artist’s book.