KUNST AM BUCH

Kunst am Buch

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Kranz, Ireen
115×180
2009
DE
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Book cover
Book detail 1
Book detail 2
Book detail 3

About the cover:

Full-grain binding ‘I would like to meet Thomas Mann's mature and rambling literary language with clarity. I find a suitable creative means for this in regular strips. Arranged in different ways on the book cover, they refer to the spaces that are immanent not only to the body of the book, but also to the dimensions of the text. The examination of spatiality is complemented by the stencil wiping paper technique that I used for the coloured paper. The cover is made of green maroquin leather. There are five vertical white stripes of equal width on the spine, made as a leather overlay. The small lilac metallic coloured title of the book is embossed on the central leather strip. The white stripes continue across the three-sided green coloured edge. The endpapers are divided into rectangular tiles. The chemise, slipcase and suite are covered with light green coloured paper. The suite contains six further variations of the tile pattern.’

Buddenbrooks

About the content:

Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks

101-150,000 of the unabridged popular edition, S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin 1930 Buddenbrooks, the decline of a family, is Thomas Mann's first major work and is today regarded as the first social novel in the German language. It tells of the gradual decline of a wealthy merchant family and illustrates the social role and self-perception of the Hanseatic bourgeoisie in the middle of the 19th century.

He used his own family history as a model. The story takes place in his home town of Lübeck.

About the artist: Ireen Kranz completed her bookbinding apprenticeship in Hamburg with Karen Begemann, followed by three years of travelling as a journeywoman, including a few months at Bubu in Mönchaltorf. From 2001-2008, she studied Conceptual Art Book at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle under Prof Lobisch. Since 2008 she has been running her own workshop for books and art in Melbeck. She is a founding member of the artists' association club mantell and a member of the MDE, of which she was president from 2012-2018.

She regularly takes part in exhibitions and competitions. In her artistic work, it is important to her to carefully perceive all the components of the book. Quote: ‘During this process, I develop a design idea and try to create a unity between body and content with the finished book cover.’ She tries to combine the body of the book to be designed with the content as a cultural carrier.