Crying, Laughing, Writing
In response to the ongoing digitalisation, paper artist Imre van Buuren is making books with accompanying cassettes by hand in her studio in The Hague, the Netherlands. The books can be used as reception books or remembrance books and can be written in.
For the books, a variety of different types of paper are used, such as Italian and French paper, Japanese rice paper, wallpaper and silk paper. Subsequently follows the assembling and manipulating stage of the paper by folding, sewing, embroidering, painting or stamping with Indonesian textile stamps.
Imre is interested in experimenting with paper in combination with other materials, looking in particular at the possibilities of textiles. Textiles and paper are closely related to each other because textiles are often the raw material of paper and in many handmade papers thread and cotton are used. She does not create paper from pulp herself but still makes 'new' paper by composing existing paper with silk, cheesecloth and thread to create new sheets. Imre is inspired by couture and textile art because the way fabric is folded and processed can also be applied with paper.
As the daughter of a textile artist, the silk roles and embroidery threads in 1001 colours were omnipresent in the house where she grew up. It was logic to use these materials in combination with paper because with these fabrics and threads it is possible to create the special quiet and subdued atmosphere she is looking for in her work. The sphere of old, yellowed books with dried petals, written letters by hand and dried roses held together with cheesecloth. This tranquil atmosphere can only be achieved by using these textile materials, precisely because they have such a fragile character.
That is why each book is sewn by hand in a loose manner so you can still see threads sticking out. It looks a bit messy and unfinished and that's just the appearance that Imre is striving for.
Each book fits into a handmade cassette that has a cover which consists of a collage of items e.g. small objects found in nature, folded bundles of silk, embroidered French poems, calligraphed fragments on paper and origami animals. During the design process, she always takes lots of pictures of various compositions and materials, which she shares on her Pinterest and Instagram pages.
