Philippe Vandenberg, Henrie Hemelsoet, etching proof print
for 'Exil de peintre', Ergo Pers, 2003

 

Exil de peintre is an artist book with 64 etchings and an unpublished text La lettre au nègre (Letter to the Nigger) by Philippe Vandenberg. For a year, Philippe Vandenberg worked on this series of etchings in the studio of Henrie Hemelsoet. This master printer is one of the constants in the editions of Ergo Pers, and for Exil de Peintre he was a necessary condition. The contact with the graphic technique gave a new twist to Vandenberg's work. The anecdotal and narrative aspect of his earlier work made way for configurations of a purely abstract interplay of lines. Whereas Vandenberg used destruction as a method in his painting, 'failure' in etching is often an opening to a new visual language.
The etching technique, the artist's book as a laboratory;

Exil de peintre, is published in a limited edition of 33 copies.
Each book includes two volumes : a first volume with 53 etchings an an additional second volume with a suite of 11 echings, signed and numbered by Philippe Vandenberg.

Exil de peintre was a creation of Philipe Vandenberg, Henri Hemelsoet and Rein Ergo.