Calling on Hans Gremmen
Hans is a graphic designer and the publisher of Fw:Books. He designed the ‘BUY BOOKS, READ BOOKS, BUY LOCAL’ poster which, for the past year, spread both on and off-line. We met to speak about what it meant contemporarily and about the challenges of a space like Enter Enter.
Can you tell us about Enter Enter?
I share the space with Ayumi Higuchi and Roger Willems from Roma Publications. Roger was my teacher, I did my internship with him and basically never left! Ayumi was Roger’s assistant and then mine, but she was so good that she developped her own practice. We are very independent but every now and then, it’s good to talk — where do you go for silkscreening? what about the design of that book cover?
We are a nice trio: alone but also together. Enter Enter is a space for books. John Simons, Idea Books’ founder, offered us the premises and had the request that we develop a non-profit venue to support books. It took us half a year to think about what we wanted to do: an exhibition space? or a bookshop? We didn’t want the latter because we didn’t feel like competing with already struggling shops. We want to be in between: a project space where we can show experimental things from different angles. We started at the end of 2019, had one exhibition with Karel Martens and one with student publications from the Rietveld.
It’s not advertising, just trying to create some awareness about the fragility of all these kinds of places.
Why the need for the ‘BUY BOOKS, BUY LOCAL’ poster?
We developped that when we had to close down because of Covid. I had read an article about a booksale spike because everybody was at home and online shopping. Bookshops were trying to find creative ways to serve their customers and to survive. Enter Enter had immediately postponed all events but at that moment, what the book needed was support. I wanted to do a very simple poster to try and encourage people to support local shopping. The poster became a success, with people posting it online or showing it in their bookshops, on all continents. We don’t want to stop producing it; there is still urgency. Bookshops use it as tool. It’s not advertising, just trying to create some awareness about the fragility of all these kinds of places. It’s about spreading the message. That message is not exclusive to people we work with. It’s for everybody who wants it.
What does ‘Buy local’ mean to you?
During the first lockdown, almost everything was made virtual. Linnaeus Boekhandel is close to my house. If I want something, they send me a Tikkie and 10 minutes later, they’re on their bike delivering it. If there is a bookshop around your corner, they can also order for you. It’ll maybe cost you more, but they can benefit from it. They are working people like us, who are also in the city, have to shop and pay their houses. It’s much nicer to spend your money there than to a mogul that exploits people in his company. It’s with everything: it’s nice to buy your groceries from a local grocery. Bol.com is not only evil though, because you can buy second hand books there; some bookshops only work through their platform too. There’s a grey area, but by saying ‘Buy local’, I mean opening up again. It’s about human connection, interaction. Bookshops have super nice people, happy to explain anything to you and make recommendations which other books you might like. Of course, Amazon does this as well but it makes more sense to hear it from somebody in person as oppose to some algorithm.
What are your next projects with Enter Enter? How do you show books?
I’m setting up an exhibition for Bertien van Manen, a Dutch photographer who’s been shooting since the 1970s. I’ll shift the angle of her books — for instance, one of the first she had was of photographs of her family; I will show self-portraits that she made during that time, so that you’re aware of the photographer being there. She made another about Russia. I’ll show the photographs of people with it when she went back to show them. She has these iconic images — you will see the context in which they are made. It was the first time that she really opened her whole archive. Exhibitions with books are always a bit problematic. A book is something that you need to touch, see and feel. It’s a lot of information, but you can at least get an idea, and it’s our role to point in that direction. You can ask, we are always here.
What are some addresses you enjoy in the city?
Concerto (Utrechtsestraat), for records. I find it nice to just get lost there and see what they have and talk with them. Zwart op Wit, De Slegte (Vijzelstraat), Boekie Woekie (Berenstraat); Waterlooplein and the Spui also have those book stands. I like second hand a lot, simply because you always find what you don’t expect to. You decide not to be so efficient but waste some time and see what happens. That makes everything more interesting.