Publisher Philip Elchers on books as an art form

“I turn my publishing house into an art project. Long ago I started a hobby: making bibliophile books. But that was always somewhat overshadowed by my design agency, where I employed 4 to 5 people. That desk is still there, but now I have it with my wife. The crazy little publishing house that was in the attic has always been a bit of a weird hobby of Flip before. Like: Flip makes fun, crazy books.”

And you wanted to get rid of that.

“Not even that. I played the lead in that myself by saying I didn't have time for it. But as I got fewer assignments for my agency, and my wife and I got older, we wondered 'why don't we start paying more attention to publishing?' At the time, the publishing house grew. Suddenly Philip Elchers became a unique selling point.”

You sell special books, what are they?

“Special books are books in which extra attention is paid to the design, the execution. Books that might not normally be commercially viable to make, while they are interesting. Books that do not naturally have national interest.”

Are they outsiders?

“Yes, I can say that with some pride. They are books of which people say: there is no bread to be made with them. Or vice versa, that the book is not created from the needs of the market, but from the needs of the maker. I have built up a reputation that I am fanatical about turning it into a special book in terms of design. But I always consider what it's for, who it's for and what budget there is to make it. There are two kinds of books that I deal with: it is about art or it is art.”

Where is the line between an ordinary book and a book as an art form?

“That is primarily in the design. The form is always secondary. If you like beautiful music, then you want a beautiful installation. But if you hear that music on a radio or on your earphones, that's fine too. That is actually the case for any content. But a beautiful book with a silly content is the worst there is, of course. It must be an appropriate medium for the content.

“A very important aspect of a book is that there is a beginning, a development and an end.” Ekkers points to a painting. “A painting is a kind of perpetual here and now. Every time we look at it it's the same thing, that's all. There is no development. Mostly that you look at it with a different mood today, or that the light is different, but it is always the same thing. A book, on the other hand, starts somewhere, it goes somewhere, it goes on and on, and it ends. That is a very interesting fact for artists, and the possibilities are endless. Whether you use it to make a summary or tell a story.”

Are you dependent on funds?

“No, but I do depend on clients. Funding must come from whoever wants the book, either an organization or an individual. But that doesn't necessarily have to be a rich person. A book itself costs some money, of course. The joke is that I can always add some cleverness to the exploitation of such a book. When we talk about the visual arts sector, of course I often have to deal with people who don't have much to do with it. So a book worth five thousand or six thousand euros, that is quite a lot of money.”

What kind of cleverness should I think about then?

“Before you know it, you have all kinds of nice friends in your area who actually really like that you operate as an artist. And who also really like to celebrate your party that you might be ten years old or that you have a certain occasion where you want to make a publication. That group is a potential of supporters. These are people who at some point say: 'I want to order that book in advance! What does it cost? I participate!'. We can also make deluxe editions of a book. Then, for example, there is a work of art in the back and we do that in a refined edition. For example, if you make fifteen of that, each costing 145 euros, you already have a nice amount.”

What is your role as a publisher?

“I am only the creative organizer. I work with a printer, a binder, a paper supplier, and so on. You have to see me as a film director. I'm not an actor, I didn't write the script, I'm not a cameraman, I don't distribute the film. I don't do anything, actually. But I do decide the movie. like with a movie you always have the idea that someone has determined why the movie looks the way it does.”

Are you a reader yourself?

"No not at all. I'm not a reader at all. I'm a functional reader, so I read what I need to read. But I don't get to read a normal book at all. Of course I have to read for work, because I have to take note of this and judge that whether editing should perform. But I find it more fun to make books than to read them. Although I do read these books, of course, but in a different way.”

Do you visit a lot of exhibitions?

“Yeah, well, when I get around to it, of course. If you have such a shop, then everything comes together, right? I am the one who founded the publishing house, I am in contact with the artists, I am selling in the shop. So you're basically just running all of this full-time. Then you notice that you sometimes miss out on going to other art exhibitions.”

Finally: your name is Flip Ekkers, but the publisher is called Philip Elchers. Why the name change?

“Philip Ekkers is my birth name, but I didn't really want to be called Philip. I always thought it was a bit of a scary name, a bit of a spoiled boy. So I had to be called Flip. But when I hear someone called Flip these days, I think: I don't take him seriously. So that's a bit of a bug again. And Elchers is a misspelling of someone who couldn't read my last name. So Philip Elchers is my chic brother, my alter ego. I wanted a name for my publishing company that stands out. Not 'publishing the amonie' or something like that. It had to be a name. A guy or woman who stands for that product. Publisher Flip Ekkers sounded so angular to me, I think more of garden books or something like that. So I thought: let's get those Elchers out of the closet. And then we don't do Flip Elchers, but Philip Elchers, that sounds chic, but also distinctive!”

Note: this article has een translated using Google Translate