josef chladek

on photobooks and books

Mariken Wessels - Taking Off. Henry my neighbor, Art Paper Editions, 2015, Brussels

 

Softcover, edition of 1,000 copies, signed.

„The artist book Taking Off  is of the same format as Elisabeth - I want to eat (2008) and Queen Ann. P.S. Belly cut off (2010), Mariken Wessels books with which it forms an open trilogy.
Taking Off is a real picture story of a failed marriage, of sexual frustration and voyeurism. An extraordinary amount of photographs and cut-up collages comprise an archival vertigo of amateur nude art.
Through people she met on a journey through the United States, Mariken Wessels gained access to the studio and the entire archive of Henry, as well as full consent over its use. She started redacting the work and rearranging it, so to form an artist's book, in which the audience will be invited to a journey into Henry’s vision of his wife and muse.
In Taking Off, we are invited to discover the photographic obsessions of Henry, which through encountering them in the book could become our obsessions too. For years, Henry's wife has been under his spell and turned a model for his extravagant amateur art. In a room of his own, he collected and categorised over 5,500 black-and-white photos, for which she had absent-mindedly posed naked, into a self-fashioned classification.
After she overcame her feelings of shame, she finally "discovered" the dazzling world of Henry, seeing herself endlessly multiplied. After this confrontation, she literally threw his life’s work out on the street, then disappeared out of his life. Henry saved the remnants, started living a hermit’s life, he cut up the remaining photographs and turned them into collages. He then used those as models for clay figurines – ever more removed from the original object. Finally, Henry disappeared into the woods, practising the survival techniques he had learned from collected manuals. No one has seen or heard from him since.
Wessels became a trusted channel for this story to be communicated to the world, thereby making an artistic plea for the courage of Henry's muse to expose her husband’s creative madness.“

Order at Art Paper Editions.

Pages: 330
Place: Brussels
Year: 2015
Publisher: Art Paper Editions
Size: 24 x 33 cm (approx.)


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Mariken Wessels - Taking Off. Henry my neighbor (Front)

Mariken Wessels - Taking Off. Henry my neighbor (Front)

Mariken Wessels - Taking Off. Henry my neighbor (Spine)

Mariken Wessels - Taking Off. Henry my neighbor (Spine)

Mariken Wessels - Taking Off. Henry my neighbor (Back)

Mariken Wessels - Taking Off. Henry my neighbor (Back)




Sample page 1 for book Mariken Wessels – Taking Off. Henry my neighbor

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Sample page 19 for book Mariken Wessels – Taking Off. Henry my neighbor

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Sample page 20 for book Mariken Wessels – Taking Off. Henry my neighbor

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Sample page 21 for book Mariken Wessels – Taking Off. Henry my neighbor

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Softcover, edition of 1,000 copies, signed.

„The artist book Taking Off  is of the same format as Elisabeth - I want to eat (2008) and Queen Ann. P.S. Belly cut off (2010), Mariken Wessels books with which it forms an open trilogy.
Taking Off is a real picture story of a failed marriage, of sexual frustration and voyeurism. An extraordinary amount of photographs and cut-up collages comprise an archival vertigo of amateur nude art.
Through people she met on a journey through the United States, Mariken Wessels gained access to the studio and the entire archive of Henry, as well as full consent over its use. She started redacting the work and rearranging it, so to form an artist's book, in which the audience will be invited to a journey into Henry’s vision of his wife and muse.
In Taking Off, we are invited to discover the photographic obsessions of Henry, which through encountering them in the book could become our obsessions too. For years, Henry's wife has been under his spell and turned a model for his extravagant amateur art. In a room of his own, he collected and categorised over 5,500 black-and-white photos, for which she had absent-mindedly posed naked, into a self-fashioned classification.
After she overcame her feelings of shame, she finally "discovered" the dazzling world of Henry, seeing herself endlessly multiplied. After this confrontation, she literally threw his life’s work out on the street, then disappeared out of his life. Henry saved the remnants, started living a hermit’s life, he cut up the remaining photographs and turned them into collages. He then used those as models for clay figurines – ever more removed from the original object. Finally, Henry disappeared into the woods, practising the survival techniques he had learned from collected manuals. No one has seen or heard from him since.
Wessels became a trusted channel for this story to be communicated to the world, thereby making an artistic plea for the courage of Henry's muse to expose her husband’s creative madness.“

Order at Art Paper Editions.

Pages: 330
Place: Brussels
Year: 2015
Publisher: Art Paper Editions
Size: 24 x 33 cm (approx.)


Latest updates
 

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