Baake, Frans. — No where / Now here.
Enschedé, self-published, 2018, (58) pag., photographic/ graphic illustrations, printed in 100 numbered and signed copies by Grafisch Atelier Alkmaar on various kinds of paper (and fabric), silkscreen illustrations by AKI (Enschedé), Dutch and English text, original spiralbound yellow cloth-covered boards with printed title, oblong folio (30 x 44 cm.), in original packing box with mounted title-label. = Our copy numbered 14/100. Account of a journey made by the artist in 2017 to one of the remotest islands in the world: Tristan da Cunha - a visit that meant the fulfillment of a long-cherished wish of Baake and which was supported by the Mondriaan Fund. The book I made based on this trip is entitled No where - now here and in fact is not about the island. Above all it aims to give an impression of my own journey: the desire to go once, to an island beyond the horizon, a destination of the mind and finally, to set foot on that island: there, once and for all time! Between the initial desire and actually going 46 years passed: a considerable length of human life, in which all those things that you might expect to happen over such a long time, have happened. The island waited patiently, and now the journey has been made. From time to time I stare at the large IKEA wall-map and look at the tiny dot in the infinity of the ocean and think: Now I know!(The artist in the Bower Ashton Library exhibition of artists books, Bristol (2018)). During his travels, Frans Baake makes sketches, photos and notes. The journey is then translated into a work of art, namely an artist's book, which he publishes himself in a small edition. In artists' books, the image usually dominates. The countless artist books that Baake has made are full of photos, woodcuts, linocuts, screenprints, collages and texts. The books are not literally about his travels and are therefore not comparable to the way we make our photo album or diary after a holiday. Baakes way of working is similar in general: he prepares for his voyage, at the actual trip he will make drawings, writings, photographs; in his studio back home these together with his thoughts and ideas will be transformed into books, prints, sketches, portfolios, articles.