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Adam und E. Alexander Johannes Kraut.

Adam und E. Alexander Johannes Kraut (Germany).

Photographs by Alexander Johannes Kraut
Design by Christoph Dohse

Published by Alexander J. Kraut with the support of Casa Zia Lina Foundation.
Edition of 450, 2010.

[Purchase this book directly from the artist, info [at] ajkraut.de]

Alexander J. Kraut is a German artist, working in drawing and printmaking. Adam und E is a beautiful mini book Alexander Kraut created while being artist in residence at Casa Zia Lina, Italy. Photographs of artist’s shadows on rocks and sea create interesting dynamic and mood. This is a very simple mini book with elegant design and beautiful colours.

And here is a wonderful piece by Elizabeth Volk about Adam und E.

”The Artist’s Creation

To begin with, the book’s title, incomplete and noticeably off center, nudges us to enter, instilling hopes we might find those missing letters we expect somewhere inside. But there is absolutely nothing to prepare us for the blaze of golden color in the pages that bear this primal story, its theme stirring the very essence of our being, making us feel the warmth and heat of genesis. Like those shoes left on the rocks, we shed all vestiges of civilization to increasingly immerse ourselves in the elements, following Adam’s journey into his primordial world of the very nature of creation. The story has certainly never been told quite like this before. We feel in ourselves an innate need to have it related to us again, like this. We turn the little book round and round in our hands, gazing at the pictures from different angles. Who could resist doing otherwise?

This is a very big story for such a little book. But over time, after handling it for a while because of the tempting and tantalizing glow it emanates, we realize that this primal narration is perfect in all its details. The story is well borne by the book’s endpapers and spine. Their sumptuous blue color is as deep and rich as the universe itself, able to embrace the procreative warmth of the contents with ease. Closing the little book, only to open it and look yet again, we recognize now how the book’s thick cover insulates it from all of life’s trivialities, so mundane in comparison. It fills us with joy”.

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