*1955 (Germany)
lives and works in Berlin (Germany)
www.erichpaproth.de
epaproth@gmx.net

painting under the influence of Herbert Zangs, Marin Radu et alia
studies: theology, history, anthropology, philosophy, and comparative linguistics
degree: Ph.D.
since 1989 freelance painter & book-artist & journalist
Numeros national and internation exhibtions
Member of BBK and iaa aiap (UNESCO) and DFJV

Curator's Statement
by Erich Paproth 

The Arab World (1), Guest of Honor at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, has extensively and carefully prepared numerous forums for international reception. In the so-called “Arab Pavilion” alone, more than 20 cultural blocks will be presented; the multifarious cultural events of the Arab League in Frankfurt should also be pointed out, as their extensiveness, as so often, offers nearly everything and forces the individual to selective perception.

Dr. Mongi Bousnina in particular has earned recognition for his work on the presentation of the Arab World in Frankfurt. As General Director of the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (A.L.E.C.S.O.), he was able to present the “Arab World” on this unique occasion with the amazing power of its impressive past still impacting us today and enriching the cultural wealth of our planet with a deep-felt sense for harmony and creative energy.

Global reception, the permanent flood of information, the interplay of the most different media – all this makes a cultural output possible, documents a global cultural creative energy which is at any given moment too much and overwhelms. Segments are opened up, specialization spreads and not only makes communication necessary, but also leads to isolation, encapsulation. It is precisely here are the aims that Dr. Mongi Bousnina sees in contemporary Arab culture: in its liveliness, the culture of the Arab World seeks to “embrace the world”, and I am more than willing to let that liveliness captivate me, its independence and openness convince me!

The author had the privilege of gaining personal experiences with that culture in 2002 on the occasion of the opening of the new Library of Alexandria. Thanks to the generous support of Arab, international, and German organizations, renowned artists were able to create “bookart” during an international workshop (2) there.

“Bookart”, precisely such a prestigious and worldwide courted element of contemporary culture, at least in our own cultural realm hardly accommodated in its art-historical reception and actually only recognized by insiders, “bookart” as an area of plastic art, object art, has been able to establish itself much more substantially with the most various techniques involving the book in other countries, and especially in Arabic ones. This is the only explanation for the phenomenal 2002 reopening of the Alexandria Library having included a notable exhibition of international bookart.

In this publication, you will at various points find different references to this exhibition, the most important international one on bookart to date and extremely significant for the world and history of the artist’s book.

It is a great honor to me, that Dr. Mohamed Abu Elnaga agreed to participate in our project “contemporary bookart from the Arab world”, as well as the other artists whose verbal contributions are included in this catalogue and whose pictorial ones are to be found on our website. My sincere thanks to them all for their kind collaboration. Unfortunately, all artists could not be included, some for formal-institutional reasons among others. It remains an unfulfilled wish that international cooperation, so often demanded, be supported in concrete cases rather than, as it was also this time the case, ending up in an institutional quagmire.

The organization BuchDruckKunst e.v., under the direction of Wibke Bartkowiak and located in Hamburg (D), forged into new territory with this exhibition. The original artist book as unique object is not the exclusive or even primary medium that the organization has concentrated in its cooperation with the Frankfurt Book Fair. Letterpress imprints, small and even miniature editions, paper were the focal point. And it is thanks to the artists’ work that this already broad spectrum has now been expanded, and not first with this exhibition, to include precisely that topic which is hardly perceived elsewhere, yet enjoys a fantastic context, perhaps even origin, in the Arab World: the book, the artist’s book. Here then, the Arab World visibly embraces the rest of the world in its liveliness and reality!

The book, the artist’s book, a single unique handmade object, has not only again and again renewed the historical dimension of the literary source and preciousness of the book, but is also first and foremost the artist’s own medium. Syntax enables, series requires, and clarity forces. The organization BuchDruckKunst and especially Ms. Wibke Bartkowiak, with their generous commitment to this exhibition, have not only made this catalogue possible, but above all allowed this idea to blossom.

For their tireless collaboration, very special thanks are due to:
Dipl. Inf. Manfred Orberger , Berlin (D), for the design and realization of the website;
Dr. Richard Gardner, Berlin (D), for the spur-of-the-moment translations necessary from one language to the other; Marc Stephan, Berlin (D), for the design and printing of this catalogue.