Wanderlust: A Road Trip From The Netherlands to Senegal
The Netherlands: Double Dutch Design, 2022. Hardcover. This is a unique artist's book from the highly regarded book artist, Merike van Zanten. Merike focused on book arts, letterpress design and printing in the United States beginning in 2003 in the US, but re-established studio in The Netherlands around 2020. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, residencies, and workshops during her career. Her work can be found in a number of libraries, including the Bainbridge Museum of Art, The Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination, Boston Atheneum, Stanford University, Baylor University and the University of Miami. Merike is an accomplished artist using eco printing techniques. Eco printing is a process whereby only natural materials are used such as leaves and flowers that transfer their pigments onto a substrate when subjected to heat and pressure. The process produces exceptionally beautiful designs and colors. This recent book she described as an eco printed road trip from The Netherlands to Senegal. She writes of this beautiful work: "In 2015 I took part in an overland trip from The Netherlands to Gambia. Our team consisted of two 4WD vehicles with a crew of two each. In 25 days we drove 5,158 miles through eight countries on two continents. We traversed mountains, deserts and coastal areas while driving on roads, dirt tracks and vast sandy expanses. I collected plant material where possible and made botanical prints on paper. Combined with photographs from the trip and quotes about wandering and traveling it became Wanderlust." The book was created as an accordion fold structure with a detachable spine and thus can be viewed as a codex or by opening the spine and extending the pages. The book is bound in dark green cloth with a striking front cover with a botanically printed first cover of white cowhide. The cover has the title, subtitle and press name printed in brown. The many pages of eco prints were scanned and printed on Epson Stylus Pro 3800. The several photographs from the trip were edited in Photoshop. Housed in a brown slipcase. In fine condition. The book measures 5.25 x 6.75 inches when closed, and 6.75 x 17' when opened. Unpaginated [124 pages]. Fine. More