Veronika Schäpers
Veronika Schäpers is without question one of the most skillful protagonists among today’s book artists. In her work, boundaries disappear; her elaborate text arrangements are neither simply illustrated nor typographic books, but instead are best characterized as visual compositions.
These are accompanied by an astonishing range of bindings, including the traditional codex, scrolls, leporellos and objets d’art. Delicate bindings are always part of the overall work of art.
Veronika chooses texts mainly from living German writers and embeds them into a kind of book that functions like the text’s stage.
Thus the verbal message forms the basis for a concept that centrally integrates the visual and haptic effects of a wide range of materials.
There are modern synthetic materials, inkjet-printed, but also traditional Japanese materials like lacquer and handmade papers, sometimes especially made for a specific project.
All of her books are highly individual and completely different from one another. It is this range of stylistic, technical and material variety that gives her art of bookmaking such remarkable significance.
Much of it is obviously influenced by the many years she spent living in Japan.This is mirrored by the issues that her books address; many of them focus on everyday Japanese life, building a bridge between East and West.
Veronikas books speak equally to the mind and the senses, which makes them a special experience for the observer.
Veronika was trained as a bookbinder/craft for three years before she studied at the »Hochschule für Kunst und Design Burg Giebichenstein« in Halle (D), where she graduated in 1996 with a diploma.
After a three months scholarship with the Centro del bel Libro, Ascona, (CH) followed by a nine months scholarship with Naoaki Sakamoto in Tokyo, (J), she started to work in Tokyo on her artist books.
In 2012 she moved back to Germany, first Berlin, in 2014 to Karlsruhe where she now lives and works.
Veronika did a masterclass here in April 2022.
We hope she will come back for another one.
More information: Veronikaschaepers.net