28 February 2020

According to Marshall Weber, the workshop’s declared intention was to create a lasting bond between the residents of Wolfenbüttel and the Herzog August Bibliothek. We asked four participants how the workshop changed their relationship to the HAB.

Monika Meißner:
That’s a very easy question, or rather the answer’s easy, because my relationship really changed completely. Although I was fairly library-savvy before – in that I visited many exhibitions and went to the openings of the artist’s book shows in particular – there was a lot of information that I just didn’t have. The book research homework allowed me to delve into that and find out things that I didn’t know before. I always used to think that only scholars could work with the books at the HAB. I had no idea that I could use all its resources as an ordinary citizen. When it came to the practical details of getting a library card and borrowing books, I found that the staff were very helpful, patient and friendly. That was great and they helped me an awful lot. It was a real eye-opener for me. I went home and said, ‘Wow! My library!’

The workshop took place last autumn against the background of the HAB’s extensive holdings of painter’s books. During the introduction to the workshop, art restorer Katharina Mähler presented Marshall Weber’s work At the Theodor Adorno Monument along with exhibits like Joseph Beuys’s 1a gebratene Fischgräte, Henri Matisse’s Jazz and Veronika Schäpers’s Lob des Taifuns, providing inspiring insights into the variety of design possibilities offered by the medium of the artist’s book. Even before the participants met for the first time at the Bundesakademie für kulturelle Bildung (Federal Academy for Cultural Education) in Wolfenbüttel, Weber had set them two creative tasks. Firstly, every participant was asked to select a book from the HAB’s collection and give a brief presentation about it on the first day of the workshop. Secondly, they were asked to write two letters: one to their real, future or imagined grandchildren and one to their grandparents’ generation. In the weeks that followed, the participants met regularly and got to know one another as well as a wide variety of materials and techniques. They cut, pasted, drew, made frottages and collages and finally developed their very own individual artist’s book.

Anita Marijana Bajic:
I only got to know the HAB at all because I had the opportunity to participate in the workshop. And I’m very glad for it, because it’s such a beautiful building with such beautiful old books, and I really enjoyed the challenge, the task Marshall Weber set us of engaging with books from the library. I tried to get to grips with the old books. That was really a huge challenge, but I received very friendly support from the library staff. I finally found what I was looking for in the school student seminar, and I worked with books that were being used there. Some students were working in the library at the same time, and I always think it’s really great to have a connection to current affairs and the present day. I borrowed lots of books about women’s roles from the student seminar and I’m working with them right now.

Carsten Curtius:
I’ve always been aware of the HAB thanks to the artist’s books but I’ve never done anything in that line myself – I’ve never drawn or painted. So I went to the workshop feeling quite insecure, but also very interested. For beginners like me, this square (editor’s note: a square fanfold made of museum paper) was a great help. It provided a clear framework. When we were given the task of writing those letters, my first impression was that it was a bit too pedagogical, but it did end up getting me to reflect more deeply. My relationship to the HAB has changed in that this project and Marshall Weber’s stimulating input gave me the opportunity of choosing and presenting a book. I’d never done that before, so it was a new experience for me.

Marlies Curtius:
How did it change my relationship with the HAB? By a quantum leap! One of Marshall Weber’s introductory tasks was to get us to find a book of our own choosing in the Malerbuchsaal. And of course that prompted me to go there in person – not to search on the internet but to make direct contact. So I went to the issuing desk and started talking to the staff. They found books for me, they gave explanations, and I spent the whole afternoon there. It was an absolute delight.

I’ve known the library since 1968, but thanks to this in-depth engagement through the workshop assignment, I was able to hold an incunabulum in my hands for the first time and turn its pages. That was a unique experience. Culture is always out in front when it comes to opening up, being curious, even doing something unusual, getting a foot in the door. And this is precisely what the workshop speaks to. It’s about permeability. Permeability between two institutions, the Bundesakademie für kulturelle Bildung and the HAB, and permeability between the participants and the institutions. The participants aren’t experts in the field of library science, nor are they constantly focusing on the early modern period. They’re interested amateurs who have acquired a little knowledge. There must be many people who would like to build on the knowledge they have but don’t know how to go about it. I think events and experiences like this are very valuable for that. Suddenly you’re talking to various members of an institution where you don’t work and where you don’t have direct access, and you can gradually get to know its structure and find out its approach to dealing with the public, how it disseminates knowledge and what you can actively do in order to engage in a dialogue and ask your questions. And that’s the core of education: learning how to ask good questions. And this is exactly the place where you can learn that. Where else, if not here? Here you realise how much you don’t know and where you can enrich yourself in the most positive sense. I see this as an opening, as an event that’s permeable in all directions. It’s a way in – into both institutions.

Marshall Weber was awarded the Artist’s Book Prize in 2019 for his concept. This prize is awarded jointly by the Herzog August Bibliothek and the Curt Mast Jägermeister Foundation. Click here to read an interview with the artist in which he talks about the workshop and his personal relationship with the HAB.

PURL: http://diglib.hab.de/?link=165