{"title":"Jan Vercruyse","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"fur-elise","title":"Für Elise","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter studying law at the University of Ghent, Jan Vercruysse reinvented himself as a poet and conceptual artist. In this first editorial experiment, he conceived the catalogue for his solo exhibition at the International Cultureel Centrum in Antwerp (October–November 1978) as an artwork in its own right.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTaking as his epigraph Ferdinand de Saussure’s observation that “it is a bad method to start from words in order to define things”, Vercruysse explores language not only as a system of signs, but also in its semantic and visual dimensions. He begins by playing with the phrase “pensées littéraires” (literary thoughts), presenting it as a visual poetry written with eight different typefaces: Ratio Italique, Garamont, Pascal, Baskerville, Charleston, Broadway, Polka, and Avant Garde Light. Halfway through the book, language gives way to a more explicitly conceptual proposition, reflecting on the formal, aesthetic, and political meanings of the artwork. The final section turns to the publication itself as a self-conscious object, offering a range of related terms – catalogue, index, art script, commercial script, palace script – each set in a different typeface.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe influence of Marcel Broodthaers is perceptible, yet remains subtle and deliberately acknowledged. The title, “Für Elise,” evokes Beethoven’s famous bagatelle, while the arrangement of the text across the pages suggests the rhythm and structure of a musical composition.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55190718120275,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4666.png?v=1791099378"},{"product_id":"spleen-de-hambourg","title":"Spleen de Hambourg","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter studying law at the University of Ghent, Jan Vercruysse reinvented himself as a poet and conceptual artist. Conceived in 1983 but published only two years later by Yves Gevaert, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSpleen de Hambourg\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e combines Baudelairean references with elements of psychogeography, photonovel, visual poetry, and typography. The book unfolds as a self-conscious object, with text and image carefully orchestrated throughout its pages.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe self-reflexivity of this artist’s book is encapsulated in a note to the reader, presented in the form of a poem, which appears in the opening pages:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt would be beautiful, too beautiful, to be able to entrust one’s feelings and opinions to a book. And yet, that is apparently what the author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSpleen de Hambourg\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e has done. To read in this \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTravel Journal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, which is rightly a novel, since the author has evidently read others, the journal of a Life, that would perhaps be going too far. Nevertheless, as a Reader, only the over-learned will lose themselves there. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e(loosely translated from French)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis ambiguity between novel and poem is illustrated by the book itself. In the pages that follow, a melancholic journal takes the reader to Trieste, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Brussels, Leningrad, Ghent, Glasgow, and Mars through a sequence of concise texts, images, typographic variations, and blank pages.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe book comes full circle in its concluding note, which invites the reader to reflect on the nature of the volume itself and to situate it within time and space.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55327419892051,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4672.png?v=1791787096"}],"url":"https:\/\/metabooks.art\/collections\/jan-vercruyse.oembed","provider":"Metabooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}