Marjon Mudde – Le chemin de la petite vicinalité (Country roads)

Artist Statement

During an artist residency in the French Alps, invited by the Public library of the Département des Hautes-Alpes in 2013, I spend three months studying landscape, costume, architecture, animals, plants, history of the region. I did many sketches and took notes, met locals. And I climbed those mountains, bearing the marks of pastoral life of the past.

Then all my tools came in handy for the making of an artists book : printing presses, gouges, sewing needles, cabinetmaker tools… More than six months of continuous work were involved to finish an edition of three.

Materials & Technique

The title Le chemin de la petite vicinalité is an old french expression indicating country roads. The setting is the French Alps, 19th century. There’s « Where I would like to have lived ». Local roads in the mountains are depicted, but there is more to it : the book also shows the road of life : childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age.

The book is handmade with typesetting and color linocuts. Embroidery of the paper prints on linen fabric pages. The Roman inspired binding has wooden boards, leather straps and brass elements which are etched.

About Marjon Mudde

Marjon Mudde is a book artist and engraver from Dutch origin and has been living and working in France since 1983. After earning a degree in printmaking at a Dutch school of art, she was trained in Paris as a printer and engraver by Atelier Lacourière-Frélaut and Tanguy Garric. Marjon has received several awards in printmaking and bookmaking. She has created more than 50 editions of artists books, which are widely collected by public libraries in France. 

She is a teacher of workshops for amateurs and professionals. She currently works with typography, etching, drypoint, lino and woodcut, and papermaking. Additionally she does experimentations based on ancient bookbinding techniques such as coptic and roman. 

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