A Thing of Beauty at Ghent: Henry van de Velde's Book Designs (Design museum Gent, 21 March - 1 June 2009)

April is not the cruellest month for book lovers and bibliophiles: the weather is good, and suddenly book-related activities abound in libraries and institutions.

Take a stroll around the city of Ghent, into the footsteps of designer and architect Henry van de Velde (Antwerp, 1893 - Zürich 1957). Literally so, by climbing the university library's Boekentoren / Tower of Books, and by taking a visit to the building that van de Velde designed.

The building dates from 1934 , the period during which van de Velde was teaching applied arts and architecture at the university (University Library, Rozier 9, 9000 Gent). While Google Books is currently ploughing away in some secret corner of this building, architects Robbrecht & Daem are planning its renovation.

Belgian by birth, but European by career, van de Velde was formed as a painter at Antwerp and Paris, but quickly relinquished this path in favor of the applied arts: he underwent some influence by the Arts & Crafts Movement, and started to design tableware, silverware, textiles, and on to furniture and buildings, among others his own house Bloemenwerf at Brussels.

As an architect, he had building contracts in Germany - Folkwangmuseum in Hagen, the Nietzsche Haus and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Weimar, Switzerland, Holland -the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and Belgium - the University Library Ghent and the current Municipal Library "Tweebronnen" at Leuven. In Brussels, van de Velde was the first director of the Art School I.S.A.D., better known today as La Cambre.

Design museum Ghent, which houses items by van de Velde in its permanent collection, now hosts an exhibition highlighting book designs by van de Velde: "Henry van de Velde: Boekontwerp tussen art nouveau en nieuwe zakelijkheid."

What we see is a generous and beautiful amount of mostly morocco bindings with great variation in well-chosen, but tempered gilt decor. Sketches, drawings, photos, applied art and page designs -van de Velde did the page design for the monumental 1908 edition of Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra at Insel Verlag- provide some context. The only information missing is that of the binders and gilders, but surely the monograph lists that.

The exhibition was curated by John Dieter Brinks, owner of Triton Verlag, and was hosted in 2007 by Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum in The Hague in 2007, and from Ghent it will travel on to Berlin this fall. This European tour also serves to draw attention to a future sale.

"Henry van de Velde: Boekontwerp tussen art nouveau en nieuwe zakelijkheid." Design museum Gent, Jan Breydelstraat 5, 900 Gent (21 March - 1 June 2009). No catalogue, but a monograph by the curator: "Denkmal des Geistes: Die Buchkunst Henry van de Veldes", ISBN 3-935518-72-9, 461 pages, 180 euro, to be ordered directly at Triton Verlag.