About

History

With the founding and opening of the Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen in 1991, a collection of artists’ books was conceived as the collector’s museum’s own collection. The conception of the founding director Dr. Thomas Deecke and the guest curator Guy Schraenen, who was responsible for this collection, was to build up a collection of artists’ books and to present it for the first time not in the library but directly in the museum. A room of about 10m² was set up as a display storage and an exhibition area of about 250m². This area was referred to as “a museum within a museum”. Guy Schraenen conceived the three to four exhibitions per year mainly from the holdings of his private Archive for Small Press & Communication (ASPC). With Bettina Brach as his assistant, he curated over 30 exhibitions until 2000 and edited a 25-issue catalog series.

At the end of 1997, Dr. Anne Thurmann-Jajes was commissioned to scientifically process the collection of approximately 3000 artists’ books, artists’ newspapers and magazines, including secondary literature, which had existed until then. At the same time, Guy Schraenen expressed his wish to sell his archive. Since the archive contains artistic and documentary materials and artists’ publications have only been rudimentarily researched scientifically, she contacted the University of Bremen to explore possibilities of making the archive usable for the museum and the university. Together with Dr. Sigrid Schade, professor of art history, she then worked out a concept for researching and communicating the ASPC and the other holdings. On the basis of a joint declaration by the university and the museum, moderated by a representative of the City of Bremen, it was then possible to acquire the archive in 1999.

Thanks to the special commitment of the President of the Senate, Dr. Henning Scherf, it was possible for half of the purchase of the archive to be financed by the state government. Further financing was provided with the support of the KulturStiftung der Deutschen Bank, the Federal Government Commissioner for the Arts and Media, the Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation, the Knecht-Drenth Fonds /Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Amsterdam/Netherlands, the MuseumsFreunde Weserburg, and private patrons. Based on the ASPC, which contains approximately 40,000 works, the Collection of Artists’ Books was renamed the Research Centre for Artists’ Publications and, under the direction of Dr. Anne Thurmann-Jajes, officially established in 1999 as an independent department of the Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen (now the Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst). Today, the institution, which has since been renamed the Centre for Artists’ Publications, houses over 300,000 published works of art.

The Centre for Artists' Publications is institutionally supported by

DER SENATOR FÜR KULTUR

Institutional sponsor and partner

UNIVERSITÄT BREMEN

Centre for Artists’ Publications

The Centre for Artists’ Publications comprises approximately 100 different archives, estates, funds and collections. The holdings consist of 1,300 linear meters of written material, written material of an artistic nature and artists’ publications. In total, there are more than 300,000 edited, multiplied and published works of art by over 3,000 artists from all over the world – from artists’ stamps to artists’ books, films, videos and artists’ records to multimedia editions, the like of which cannot be found anywhere else in Europe.

The Centre for Artists’ Publications demonstrates the importance of artists’ publications for a pan-European cultural history and their location in an international context. After all, artists’ publications represent the first common European art history after World War II on the basis of an artistic network that transcends all political borders.

Tasks and Network

The Centre for Artists’ Publications

... is part of an international network of museums, universities and research institutions.
... is a unique place for cultural education, science communication and knowledge transfer.
... contributes significantly to the profile of research in the humanities both in the state of Bremen and in the Federal Republic of Germany.
... strengthens Germany as a research and education location as an institution with scientific charisma.

The central task of the Centre for Artists’ Publications is to collect and communicate artist publications and related written material since the 1950s internationally – with a focus on Europe – to preserve and maintain them and to safeguard them as cultural assets. This implies both the conservational care and storage, the supplementation and expansion of the holdings, as well as their research based on indexing and digitization.

The Centre for Artists’ Publications demonstrates the importance of artists’ publications for a pan-European cultural history and their location in an international context. After all, artists’ publications represent the first common European art history after World War II on the basis of an artistic network that transcends all political borders.