Tickety the cat joins me under the table. She wears a diamond necklace and keeps the shop free of mice. Behind me is Pissi the goldfish who lives in a ‘think tank’. “Tickety needs no one else to think for her. Tickety pays no attention to Pissi at all”.
Art works are organised cleverly in the shop. Glass cabinets hold multiples and books. Wire carousels house postcards (mostly cats). Shelves are categorised into types of books and individual artists’ shelves. Cardboard boxes stock mixed pamphlets, zines and multiples. The window display presents pegged out arrangements. I have to say, I do love a good peg. A plastic coat hanger combined with modern, fancy ergonomic pegs (the kind you get in Lakeland) makes a nice mechanism for a hanging, elongated text on paper piece.
I’ve been picking out books that are nicely messy, rough and ready and made with cheap materials. These are the kind of books I like to make too with a kind of sweet, charmed elegance. I suppose they are a bit more uncomfortable than super slick publications. I like the idea of making books with materials bought from supermarkets: paper, card, glue, stickers, stationery items…and also potato bags, croissant bags, cat food packaging, cardboard, chocolate wrappers – things like that. Last night I collected bright red plastic dog poopy bags from one of the countless DepoDog.nl dispensers installed in the streets. There are lots of nice little dogs in town.
My favourite work today Trashtown Magazine is piled up on a shelf in the shop and I’ve gathered the whole bundle to take to my little table. Trashtown Magazine is an A6, landscape, black and white pamphlet b/w photocopied onto copier paper, roughly saddle stitched or stapled; with a single centre-page fold out colour photocopy. Each issue is produced through thematic content: furniture thrown out on the streets of Amsterdam, sad stories, street litter. Simply formatted and produced relentlessly from 2003 with 7 subscribers, it’s just perfect.
What is happening here right now is that I’m feeling like making new stuff.
Jan tells me that Boekie Woekie invite artists to work with them. They also accept submissions. Artists come into the shop with work to show them and share PDFs via e mail. Not all work is accepted, some is too delicate and not suitable to be handled in the shop, or it’s too expensive and presents an insurance risk and some don’t fall into the context of books made by artists.
I think what has become apparent to me through my visit today is that the bookstore is giving me motivation to make new work again with all the stuff collected over the past year along with DepoDog poop bags. Also that, to me, it seems appropriate to visit artist run bookstores in person with a selection of work to show and tell; to build up a relationship before proposing submissions.
