Artists' Books

Creative Process - Katharina Sieverding and Karl Martens. by Olivia Wakeham

Katharina Sieverding: Projected Data Images.Testcuts. Rainer Bellenbaum

Dumont, 2010

Call number : Artist Book 0064

Karel Martens: counterprint Karel Martens

Hyphen Press, 2004

Call number : Artist Book 0619

Observing the process work of an artist offers insight around their practices, inspirations, explorations and motives. While a finished project may translate style and meaning, the creative process reveals quirks and often allows us to relate more closely to the artist in question. It is not often that we are privy to these intimate creative processes. These two books, featuring artists from different spheres of the art world, introduce us to work largely unseen by the public.

Katharina Sieverding is a German photographer whose body of work explores identity through self-portraiture as well as social and political themes. Projected Data Images. Testcuts is a “vast trove of experienced and lived documentation”, made possible by the artist’s meticulous practice of archiving throughout her career. The book features test cuts of all the film Sieverding has printed over the span of forty years. Presented in hundreds of black and white triptychs, the images are fragmented moments, offering glimpses into the artist’s life, both professional and personal. Through these we see Sierverding’s experience in multiple art-world scenes, from her time as a student at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf to her back-stage presence in the fashion industry. The book features introductory essays by Regina Wyrwoll, Renate Buschmann and Rainer Bellenbaum. 

Counterprint explores the uncommissioned work of Dutch graphic designer, Karel Martens. His highly regarded body of work includes what are widely considered to be some of the most influential typographic pieces of the twentieth century. While many of us will be familiar with his far-reaching visual influence, Counterprint is a unique collection of visual explorations that the artist rarely exhibits, doesn’t sell and “would never call art”. In this bright variety of relief prints, Karel explores colour and shape. This collection was not meant to be included with his professional work but were intended as gifts for friends. By compiling these pieces with a supporting essay by Paul Elliman, Counterprint acts as a peek into the visual thought process of a design icon.