NEW YORK, NY.- How does an artist’s dream book become a reality? How is paper made? What do the serpentine spaces of Steidl Publishers look like? How does a bookbinder miraculously transform printed sheets into the proud volumes on your bookshelf? Koto Bolofo reveals all this and more in One Love, One Book, his photo-documentation of the worlds of papermaking, printing and bookbinding.
Bolofo began his visual journey at Hahnemühle Paper Mill, founded in 1584 and today one of the world’s oldest, capturing the combination of artisanal know-how and advanced technology on which Hahnemühle’s quality is based. His next stop was Göttingen, where he shows an insider’s view of how Steidl books are made and their dedication to creating multiples: books as democratic art objects at a reasonable price. Bolofo finally traveled to Leipzig to photograph the secrets of bookbinding. Complementing the patient, hushed quality of his pictures are playful texts by Bolofo himself in which his childlike delight at the wonders of bookmaking cannot be repressed.
"One Love, One Book is Koto Bolofo’s vision of how books are made – from the production of paper; through the processes of conception, design, editing, pre-press and printing; to the wonder of binding where sheets of paper are transformed into little treasures, eager for your bookshelf.
But more importantly, One Love, One Book is about how Steidl books are made, and how we see them not merely as books but as multiples – democratic art objects at reasonable prices. I began making multiples for Joseph Beuys and Klaus Staeck in the seventies, and I hope that each Steidl book brings that tradition a little further.
This is how we make books. This is Steidl book culture." --Gerhard Steidl
Koto Bolofo was born in South Africa in 1959 and raised in Great Britain. Bolofo has photographed for magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, and made short films for the Berlinale and the Venice Film Festival. He has created advertising campaigns for companies including Hermès, Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Dom Pérignon.
Bolofo’s books with Steidl include Venus (2008), Horsepower (2010), I Spy with My Little Eye, Something Beginning with S (2010), Vroom! Vroom! (2010), La Maison (2011) and The Prison (2014).
