Secrets of Steidl Photobooks.
Making Multiples

Secrets of Steidl Photobooks. Making Multiples presents the most ambitious and elaborate Steidl publications personally chosen by Gerhard Steidl. As a renowned publisher of photobooks (as well as German literature and non-fiction), Steidl has the largest worldwide list specialized in photography, working with some of the greatest practitioners in the medium including Joel Sternfeld, Nan Goldin, Robert Frank, Robert Adams, Karl Lagerfeld, Lewis Baltz, Ed Ruscha, Roni Horn and Juergen Teller.

As both a publisher and printer, one fiercely independent since its foundation in 1968, Steidl has a unique structure in which all steps of the production process take place under the one roof at Düstere Strasse 4, Göttingen – from concept to image and text editing, from design and pre-press, to printing, marketing and distribution. Each book displays individual design and materials and is a collaboration between the artist, Gerhard Steidl and his team, where the goal is to realize without compromise the artist’s vision as a multiple: a democratic art object produced in a limited print-run with an affordable price.

Highlights of the exhibition include these limited editions in custom-made wooden cases: Jakob Tuggener’s Books and Films (2018), comprising facsimiles of twelve of Tuggener’s original maquettes, dating from 1936 to 1982, and a selection of his 16mm films on DVD; Richard Serra’s Notebooks (2011) presenting facsimiles of five of the seminal artist’s sketchbooks; and Karl Lagerfeld and René Grohnert’s Reklame. Frühe Werbung auf Plakaten, reproducing Lagerfeld’s unrivalled collection of early German advertising posters with facsimiles of four rare 1920s books on the theme. Dayanita Singh’s Museum Bhavan (2017) is a handmade box (each bound in a different cloth) containing nine accordion booklets that unfold into portable exhibitions, while Santu Mofokeng’s Stories (2019) shows over 30 year’s work in 21 stapled zines in an archive box.

The visitor is invited to leaf through such books to savour the particular textures and scents of paper, ink and cloth that make each Steidl book not just a visual but a tactile experience. On the walls surrounding these objects are posters in which Gerhard Steidl reveals some of the secrets of his bookmaking through his decades of experience: what are head and tail bands? Endpapers, tipped-in photos, bellybands?

The exhibition continues in the Black Box Studio with projections of Steidl Screen Tests filmed by Aaron Bircher, silent Super-8 films of artists including Massimo Vitali, Mitch Epstein and Koto Bolofo, inspired by Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests of 1963–66. Also shown are longer interviews with some of Steidl’s closest collaborators who share their bookmaking experiences, as well the acclaimed documentary films How to Make a Book with Steidl (2010, 88 min.) and How to Make a Book with Carlos Saura & Steidl (2017, 52 min.).

Visitors to Secrets of Steidl Photobooks. Making Multiples, the first exhibition dedicated to Steidl in Hong Kong, can expect a rare visual workshop in the craft of photobooks to inspire them on their own bookmaking adventures.