15 June 2021 press release

“Endless expanses ...”
Exhibition to mark the awarding of the City of Leipzig’s 2021 Gutenberg Prize to Judith Schalansky in the foyer of the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library from 23 June 2021 to 30 January 2022

To mark the awarding of the City of Leipzig’s Gutenberg Prize to the author, book designer and editor Judith Schalansky, the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library is dedicating a showcase exhibition to the author. Titled “Endless Expanses”, it pays homage to a unique synthesis in the realm of book culture.

The exhibition at the German Museum of Books and Writing takes the book designer’s passion as a starting point for a journey through her richly faceted cosmos of topics and images. Much of this journey takes place in the natural world, from flora and fauna, to outer space and the ocean, through to the depths of biological and geographical worlds of knowledge. Numerous artefacts from the author’s collection provide personal insights into her creative processes and give visual expression to her roles when writing, designing and curating. However, the most intensive encounter with the award-winner takes place through her publications. The exhibition therefore provides comfortable spaces to read and hear her books. Above all, however, Schalanksy’s books, which are designed to have a powerful tactile appeal, can be comprehended through touch.

With Judith Schalansky, this year’s Gutenberg Prize goes to one of the most original voices in contemporary literature, as well as a book designer whose positions on the relationship between content and form are unique in the world of books. As an editor, she is also responsible for the successful “Naturkunden” book series published by Matthes & Seitz Berlin. Judith Schalansky’s profession in all these areas in many ways makes her pre-destined to receive the award, whose ethos she wholeheartedly reflects.

Born in Greifswald in 1980, the author’s much-acclaimed début – the typography compendium “Fraktur Mon Amour” – was published in 2006 right after she completed her studies in art history and communication design in Berlin and Potsdam. Both subjects are essential to her way of working, which is characterised by precise research and observation, and is always focused on the designed book. Schalansky has since published more works, some of them award-winning and translated into numerous languages, including “The Giraffe's Neck”, “Atlas of Remote Islands” and “An Inventory of Losses”. The national study series currently encompasses over 70 individual titles.

In terms of content, the exhibition links with the permanent exhibition at the German Museum of Books and Writing, which devotes important sections to the subjects of book design and typography. Schalanksy’s works also represent a link to contemporary German and international book art, one of the museum’s key areas in terms of its collecting activities.

“Endless expanses...”
Exhibition to mark the awarding of the City of Leipzig’s 2021 Gutenberg Prize to Judith Schalansky in the foyer of the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library

23 June 2021 to 30 January 2022
Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00 Uhr, Thursday 10:00 to 20:00,
Public holidays (except Mondays) 10:00 to 18:00.
Closed on Mondays
Admission free.

www.dnb.de/gutenbergpreis2021

Background

The book has shaped our culture and civilisation like no other medium. For centuries our knowledge about the world and its peoples has been stored in books. The task of the German National Library’s German Museum of Books and Writing is to collect, exhibit and process evidence of book and media history. Founded in 1884 in Leipzig as the Deutsches Buchgewerbemuseum (German Book Trade Museum), it is the oldest museum in the world in the field of book culture, and also one of the most important with regard to the scope and quality of its holdings. Alongside manuscripts, historical prints, coloured papers and modern book art, its collections contain archive materials and estates on the history of writing and typography. Together with the world’s largest watermark collection and a host of writing implements and machines for producing books and paper, the museum’s collections facilitate an interdisciplinary approach to issues in cultural and media studies.

Since 1959, the City of Leipzig’s Gutenberg Prize, bestowed in memory of Johannes Gutenberg, has been used to honour people and institutions that – according to the Prize’s statutes – “have shown merit through their outstanding, exemplary efforts to promote book art”. The Prize is awarded for special artistic, technical or academic achievements in the areas of typography, book illustration, book-art publishing, book creation and services to the dissemination of the free word. Since 1993, it has been awarded on an annually alternating basis with the City of Mainz’s prize of the same name. The German Museum of Books and Writing is a member of the jury.

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