herman de vries - publisher

herman de vries' eschenau summer press creates unique artist’s books blending art, nature, and collaboration. Featuring objects like gold, leaves and earth. Two essays contextualise their significance.

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.