COPYRIGHT BOOKSHOP / beople

Johan Pas
art historian, teacher, author, curator, °1963

Antwerp

Johan Pas collects artists’ books and exhibition catalogues from the period 1960-1980 because that was a time when many publications were characterized by a distinct departure from tradition, with artists giving a conventional medium radical treatment. In conceptual art the artist’s book was considered of equal merit and value as the rest of his artistic production: an artwork in book form. Johan also uses these books for his scientific research and as teaching material.
He himself has staged a number of shows about artists’ books and in 2012 he and artist Vaast Colson put together an exhibition about Belgian artists’ books from 1960 to the present day at Be-Part in Waregem. When we started selling our antiquarian books - mainly artists’ books - online in 2012, he was one of our first customers! He immediately bought two artists’ books by Jacques Charlier dating from1967, in unique editions of which only one copy exists.

March 2012