Paul van Ostaijen. Bezette Stad. 
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Originaalhoutsneden en tekeningen van Oskar Jespers (Original woodcuts and drawings by Oscar Jespers). 1921 Antwerpen, Het Sienjaal (self published), first edition, one of 500 numbered copies on Vélin Registre, printed in red and black. 125p. 29:23 cm. (Errata leaflet missing). This is a very well-preserved copy.
Bezette Stad (Occupied City), the most famous example of Belgian avant-garde literature, was strongly influenced by Dadaism. It was written in Berlin between 1920 and 1921. The rhythmic typography reads like a score, resulting in a powerful visual experiment on paper. Bezette Stad is full of sound; in essence, the book is a sound work. At the end of the First World War, the Antwerp poet Paul van Ostaijen (1896–1928) fled to Berlin as a result of his political activities during the war. Experiencing Berlin in impoverished circumstances, he explored new forms of writing while seeking connections with the avant-garde movements of the time. He formed friendships with Heinrich Campendonk, Fritz Stuckenberg, Johannes Molzahn and Arnold Topp. In 1920, Van Ostaijen started working on Bezette Stad, a poetic evocation of occupied Antwerp during the First World War, interwoven with cultural and historical events of the period and reflections on Van Ostaijen’s existential struggles in Berlin. In the days following his arrival in Berlin on 3 November 1918, he visited the Der Sturm gallery and purchased a copy of Herwarth Walden's first book Das Buch der Menschenliebe (1916 Berlin, Verlag Der Sturm), a work of prose poetry in which Walden captures the urban and psychological atmosphere of Berlin during the first years of the Great War. Das Buch der Menschenliebe undoubtedly influenced Van Ostaijen's conception of Bezette Stad. Initially, Van Ostaijen had intended to have his artist friend Floris Jespers illustrate Bezette Stad. However, during a visit from his brother, the sculptor Oscar Jespers, to Berlin in September 1920, he instead commissioned Oscar to design the cover and four large woodcut illustrations. Oscar was also responsible for the typography, strictly according to the author's instructions. After visiting Berlin, Oscar and his wife Mia Jespers travelled back to Antwerp with the manuscript of the first part of Bezette Stad in their luggage. Paul van Ostaijen’s brother Constant was committed to financing the book. The preserved letters from Oscar Jespers to Paul van Ostaijen from 1920–1921 document the intense printing process of Bezette Stad and demonstrate the dedication and precision with which Oscar monitored the printing process. He commissioned the Antwerp printer F. Casie, who was well-suited to the task. For a typical printer of the time, it would have been technically impossible to produce a book like Bezette Stad. Completing the typesetting alone must have caused many a sleepless night for any typesetter. In the event that some typefaces or word forms were unavailable, Jespers cut the required clichés himself. Apart from a few exceptions, such as the striking 'Zeppelin' word – which was cut into the shape of a zeppelin at Jespers' discretion and was completely different from the manuscript version – he meticulously followed his friend's instructions. Due to technical limitations, the book had to be printed in sections. The manuscript arrived in parts from Berlin, mostly by mail. The closing part of the manuscript arrived in Antwerp at the end of February 1921. Two months later, Bezette Stad was published. A tour de force! In 2021, Demian Books recovered the long-lost manuscript of Bezette Stad, which is now one of the highlights of the Flemish Government's public collection. See our catalogue, Bezette Stad (in Dutch). - From our new paper catalogue, available at the fair -
3500,- EUR
Differenzbesteuert/Subject to margin taxation
Sachgebiete: Avantgarde, Bibliophilie, Dada, Literatur ab ca. 1900, Typographie
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