Verwandte Objekte ~ Germany
(Jule Claudia Mahn)

Jule Claudia Mah: “I picture our biography to be like the developing structure of a village: There are roads leading to all directions from the centre, new things are built next to the old ones and strangers settle next to those who have always been there. Our memories are experiences that have stuck in our minds, that let us face the passing of time whenever we come across them. “I am interested in the history of people and places. I ask, I listen, I discover, I collect and I scrutinize origins and changes, rifts and unity. My books serve the purpose of safekeeping and restructuring. We are able to read on different levels. And as we turn the pages, time passes.”

We Won't Be Coming Back
By Jule Claudia Mahn
Leipzig, Germany: Verwandte Objekte, 2019. Edition of 20.

7.25 x 14.25"; Copyedited by Nancy Grochol. Translated by John Brogden for the English edition. Set in Didot Elder. Printed from photopolymer plates and linoleum at the "carpe plumbum" studio in Leipzig. Printed on Neobond white, Extract flint, Hahnemühle Archivalpaper light grey and Lessebo Design natural papers. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Jule Claudia Mahn: "One knows this: Somewhere waiting for something, one is suddenly a silent observer of irritating street scenes in which people behave strangely, trying to hide something obviously or being treated enigmatically by their counterparts. A mind game: How does our view change when we get a glimpse into what happened before or after? The paths lead in different directions through dark terrain. Following the light, the reader enters the hideaways of four women. Gradually their stories unfold. Where external circumstances have long begun to threaten these women and force them to change, everyday actions and rituals restore their security and dignity. To what extent their destinies are interwoven and what time they actually live is part of the mind game. There is no resolution, only possible assignments.

People confronted with the loss of freedom and security find themselves on new paths. The books' numerous foldouts, pages of varying widths, and mix of paper types reflect this turmoil."
$1,800

Shimmer
By Jule Claudia Mahn
Leipzig, Germany: Verwandte Objekte, 2018. Edition of 13

30 x 18cm; 48 pages and four fold-out pages with varying sizes. Text in English. Photographs. Pigment print onto Awagami Inbe Thin White Japanese washi paper. Bound in Hollytex non-woven fabric. Housed in a paper-covered case. Enclosed in a slipcase.

Short story by Jule Claudia Mahn accompanied by her photographs.

Jule Claudia Mahn: "Dozens of metal springs, a delicate porcelain cup handle, a strangely shaped piece of corrugated iron and an almost undamaged glass bottle — so far the last finds. The hole in the garden is now so deeply dug that the children can barely look over the edge. A discussion ensues about the origin of things and why they found their way into the earth right here. Detached from their original purpose, finds are free for associations and stories about time. In the end, each child drops a personal item into the hole before filling it again.

"This story accompanies the viewer into a frenzy of light and reflections, desolations and adhesions in partly deserted places, some barely still in use. The photographs were taken during the last ten years when traveling to places of my origin. Searching for home, you might think, but I'm starting to rearrange the pictures. Something is added, other things are taken, similar to a place, which — left to itself and brought back by nature — is in constant change.

"I imagine how, in the distant future, somebody will find something between bushes and begin to ponder what benefit that object might have once had for civilization."
$980 (5 copies remaining)

Salvage
By Jule Claudia Mahn
Leipzig, Germany: Verwandte Objekte, 2016. Edition of 16.

34 x 21 cm; 44 pages. Text in English. Translation by John Brogden. Letterpress printed onto Alt Burgund handmade paper using photopolymer plates. Hand offset printed onto Munken Lynx paper. Half SnapPap binding with paper-covered boards. Housed in a slipcase. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Five vignettes written by Jule Claudia Mahn quietly exploring memory and relationships – nuggets of earlier times wrapped in rescuing cloth of memory. The title Salvage reflects the duality in the process as both noun – something extracted as from rubbish as valuable – and verb – to recue or save.

Jule Claudia Mahn: "Why did some people leave their families, when the formerly divided Germany was reunited? Can the disappearance of an anorak cause a life-long rift between a father and a daughter? And how lonesome is a goldfish in a cellar?

"Our interactions are mysterious."
$1,600

Today is One of Those Days
By Jule Claudia Mahn
Leipzig, Germany: Verwandte Objekte, 2016. Edition of 25.

23 x 15 cm; 24 pages. Letterpress printed onto Alt Burgund handmade paper using photopolymer plates and hot-foil embossing. Pamphlet binding. Fold-out paper wrapper. Text in English. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Jule Claudia Mahn: "To be quite honest, sometimes, when my head is absolutely spinning with the day’s events in the evening, then I allow myself a glass of wine. And later on another one whilst I continue my discussion with my friends, and then the horizon widens and I see the most amazing correlations."
$350

By Jule Claudia Mahn
Leipzig, Germany: Verwandte Objekte, 2014. Edition of 16.

4 volumes in foldout case. Each book 27 x 17 cm; 16 pages. Texts in English. Translation by Kevin Perryman. Set in LL Brown Thin Italic and Reclin Thin. Printed from photopolymer plates on the FAG Control 525 in the studio of Thomas Siemon (carpe plumbum) in Leipzig on Alt Burgund, 145 g/m2 handmade Römerturm paper. Pamphlet binding. Wrapper made of folded cloth. Numbered. Signed by the artist.

Carol Ciavone, entropymag.org/codex-5: "Related Children is a book project about two childhoods: Mahn’s and her father’s. Mahn wrote her father four letters, each containing a question about his childhood growing up in Germany during WWII. While she waited for his reply, she wrote about her own childhood. The result is 4 slim volumes in one open case, illustrated with abstract drawings printed from polymer plates. … In addition to being exquisite examples of the art of bookmaking, Mahn's work is about memory, the things we cannot forget and the things we should not forget."

Jule Claudia Mahn: "Related Children is the story of two childhoods, separated by fifty years of time. A book about returning to places of memories and of farewells. … I open the letter and a small piece of paper falls out, a note saying hello and letting me know I can soon ask another question. I unfold three sheets of paper and start reading."
$2,200 (Last 3 copies)

aufräumen & abschließen
[Cleaning up & Closing Down]
By Jule Claudia Mahn
Leipzig, Germany: Verwandte Objekte, 2012. Edition of 14.

33 × 22 cm; 38 pages. Text by Jule Claudia Mahn in German. Letterpress printed on Alt Burgund handmade paper using photopolymer plates and woodcuts. Half vellum binding. Housed in a cloth-covered case. Includes an English translation. laid in. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Jule Claudia Mahn: "A landlady is preparing to leave her restaurant for good. As she walks through the garden and the rooms for one last time, her attention is drawn to the familiar sounds and scents making her reminiscent about the past. Finally a place unveils itself that has long been forgotten about.

“I discover the unoccupied restaurant ‘Gambrinus’ many years later and for three months it will captivate me. During the early hours of the day I observe the sunlit rooms; beneath the cob webs and plants growing inside the rooms, I discover traces of what was once a place of social gatherings and work—a place for people to retreat. I start collecting the objects that I find and which tell this story."
$1,100

elude
By Jule Claudia Mahn
Translation by Bradley Schmidt
Leipzig, Germany: Verwandte Objekte, 2021. Edition of 16.

32.6 × 21.5 cm (12.8” x 8.5”); 64 pages of varying sizes. Archival pigment print on Metapaper Greenwhite. Embossed with foil as well as printed letterpress using photopolymer plates and linocuts on Hollytex nonwoven. Experimental binding with open stitching on both sides. Housed in a paper-covered case. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Jule Claudia Mahn: "Mona is standing in the living room in front of the ancestral portrait gallery. Her eyes wander along the long rows of small frames. Carefully, she looks at one face after the other; a lot of polite smiles, mostly friendly distance in them. Next to this, rare exuberance. Now and again, the beautiful moment of absent concentration can be seen. 'Please tell me what,' whispers Mona, 'do you have to do with me – and what do I have to do with you?'

"The disappearance begins unnoticed. Gradually, but steadily, the connections to people and events are cut. If Mona tries to hold a thought, it slips away into the diffuse. Then the restlessness returns: Who am I if I can’t remember anything?

"A cut runs lengthwise through the text. Mona’s story is held together by parallel page turning and thus becomes readable. On semi-transparent pages of varying widths, house facades, water, ventilation shafts, fences and other set pieces of urban space are constantly overlapping and rearranging themselves in relation to one another. The individual rhythm of turning the pages on both sides results in a multitude of possibilities for wandering through the terrain. At the same time, a feeling of disorientation arises, because in the end one will have to find the way back."
(SOLD/Out of Print)