From July 4th until the end of the year the Dutch National Museum of Printing runs the fine little show “Creative Paper”, showing what to be done with (printed) paper other than just scribble and print upon. In an old landmark farmhouse in Etten-Leur stacked with shiny and working (!) old industrial printing presses in the south of Holland, visitors will be able to discover gems of paper art ranging from classic origami, cut-out and pop-up to modern urban paperkits. Even without this exhibition, I love the museum for all the big moving, puffing, smelly, almost fantastical and dangerously looking machines from a Jules Verne kind of era when creating machinery was done with pride and creating books was a legitimate art form in itself. You are allowed (but safely guided) to make prints yourself and see a bookbinder or typesetter work their craft. It made me realize what has been lost nowadays where printing seems to be reduced to ordering books as cheap as possible online from some anonymous factory in cheap-laboured China.
Working back in the days almost looks romantic
“Creative Paper” tries hard to inspire a new generation in showing the beauty in paper as it still can be found today, but especially the context makes the trip worth wile.
Safety first
Up close and personal
