This issue is the thirteenth since Boekmerk was renewed in 2008. We gladly present an inventory of articles and illustrations that were published in the last twelve issues (so in the last four years). Furthermore we include our annual gift: a coloured signed woodcut by the Chinese artist Mingming Niu, which was made during his stay in Belgium.
In his last episode of the history of the modern Belgian ex-libris, Aloys Vertongen discusses artists living in Wallonia or in Brussels who were not related to Graphia and have been active since the last quarter of the twentieth century. A few famous names are mentioned, such as Pierre Alechinsky and Michel Folon.
Next you can find a list of all the ex-libris magazines that we receive from our sister organizations (in exchange for our periodical), with a short description of the form and the content of the magazines.
André Leprince is the Belgian artist presented in this issue. He lives and works in the French speaking part of Belgium (to be more precise in Liège) and is especially known in the ex-libris world for his erotic engravings dating from the seventies. Recently he has made his name as a sculptor.
Jack van Peer talked to the Flemish couple Theo Maes and Maria Wymeersch about their passion for the ex-libris, which started in the seventies after they were introduced to the Dutch couple Myra and Jan Rhebergen by Gerard Gaudaen (the famous Flemish ex-libris artist living in their home town Sint-Niklaas). Theo and Maria also discuss their favourite bookplates.
Three foreign artists are presented in this issue. The first one is Veselin Damyanov-Ves, a young Bulgarian who is guided by Onnik Karanfilian and whose work shows that he is a great talent that should be cherished. Afterwards a Belarusian artist is introduced who doesn't really need any introduction anymore, since he is generally considered as the top of the list: Roman Sustov. His first individual exhibition in Epreuve d'Artiste in Antwerp is the motive for this article. And finally Martin R. Baeyens talks about the work of Zhang Jiarui, the father of the Chinese ex-libris, whose bookplates clearly show that he has some admiration for his Belgian friend.
In honour of Gerard Mercator who was born 500 years ago, Lu Boeykens discusses two old ex-libris belonging to the IEC collection which feature a map: one by Edward Gordon Craig and the other one by William Darling.
Recent ex-libris reproduced here are made by Benedetti, Geissler, Gechev, Moutafchev, Kublik, Levitsky, Van Damme and Veloso. In the book reviews not only 'Shamanism in Ex libris and more' by Yuriy Nozdrin is presented, but also the 'Jahresgabe' of the Swiss association, an opus list of Arnold Oechslin. Finally we recommend the beautiful edition of the Steendrukmuseum of Valkenswaard (Holland), a book published for the tenth anniversary of this museum of lithography.
Karl Vissers
