The Fork and Broom Press

In 2016 we moved in at the old farm in Oppenwehe which has a barn attached at one end, built for storage purposes such as keeping straw or hay in there, or storing rutabaga or suede and potatoes for the pigs. It took us years to remove all the old stuff and fill the cellar with sand – you can follow a documentation of work in progress on my Garden-blog. In 2019 the barn turned into a lovely location for readings. This year in August the barn once again gave proof of being ever so versatile as it metamorphosed into a gallery space, and a quite bespoke one, for the first ever Wayzgoose at The Fork and Broom Press.

Our new member of staff, the Simmel proof press built in 1952, made a terrifically good job. A linoblock showing one more windmill was mounted in the press, and visitors could ink the block with a handroller and then pull their own print by turning the handle and moving the cylinder across the pressbed which meant getting a real feel of what relief printing is like. 
Those who wanted to take part in the Millprint-Challenge would then colour their print at home, take a photo and send it back to be put on show in a special blogpost on this webspace. We had people old and young pulling their prints and pulling more prints for friends or sibblings who could not come in themselves but would – hopefully – colour their work and then send in a photo to be added on the special blogpost.

The walls put on show a choice of prints and broadsides spanning from the Lushin portfolio, which was created in 2001 on the basis of Vladimir Nabokov‘s novel „The Defense“ to the brandnew series of millprints, created in 2021 and 2022, telling the stories of 12 windmills in the region.

A nice choice of artist‘s books was put on show, too, amongst them, obviously, the new book „Nichts bleibt wie es war“, and also the Manarah-series and the books with poetry by Wordsworth, Longfellow and Howells. People did have a rest on the red sofas or the deckchairs – some visitors had come by bicycle and the days at the end of August were still pretty hot and a shaded spot was truly treasured.

As I write this the barn has changed back to a simple barn again, artist‘s books and prints have moved back to shelter in the studio. Outside it has turned autumnal and almost wet – after the year 2022 gave us a long wait for the rain that soils and plants so desperately need.

In 2023 we‘ll have the regional „Culture Week“ back on LandArt-Route. During the 2019 “Culture Week” the barn was the location for readings, and we will see, what this fabulous barn will turn into next year. As soon as date and details have materialized, information will be posted here on this blog.
So bookmark this space and stay tuned!