A female artist in her early seventies, this is the first time Bernadette Messiaen presents a body of work.

The visual art in Ziltes was created from a mixture of oxygen and salt during the active time in the artist’s practice. The creative result suggests a conscious and radical act of resistance by the artist as a human being against linear time, a time that moves forward too fast for anyone who captures life.

Virginie Platteau wrote nine poems (FR/ NL /EN) that are scattered throughout the pages and written in dialog with the artworks.

Bernadette Messiaen has been practising art for over forty years, however this is the first

time she is coming out as a visual artist.

The complex architecture of the book with six three-folds and one four-fold creates different portals and adds a refreshing take on leafing through pages, printed on two different papers: Munken Print White 1.8 115 gsm, Munken Print White 1.5 80 gsm.

Ziltes activates a haptic experience and is the perfect antidote in these digital times because Ziltes is an artist’s book inspired by the complex architecture of Japanese artist’s books with over half the pages in the book being empty to

create a slowness in wandering through the book. Because of these different formal aspects, the reader is “forced” to take their time in order to fully feel the experience of the book.

Ziltes is a book without noise, where the images have space to whisper within their sequence.

first edition 450 copies