IMPRIMITIV
2009–2018

Imprimitiv was founded circa 2009 as a publication platform helmed by Sébastien Conard, Stijn Cremers, Tom Lambeens and Jan Op de Beeck. The collective develops periodical publications and monographs in the broad artistic realm of word and image, including graphics, design, typography and comics. Imprimitiv soon evolved into an artists’ collective that, in addition to realising a handful of publications, also organised a number of group exhibitions. Imprimitiv explores the possibilities of crossovers between word and image as well as the idea of a collective editorial team. The three existing editions of Aambacht remain the only tangible evidence of Imprimitiv’s activities, aside from a limited archive and a blog. Involved in the upcoming Aambacht 4 are the following variable members: Michaël Bouchez, Sébastien Conard, Stijn Cremers, Jasper de Pagie, Joris De Rycke, Veerle Herremans, Bert Joostens, Tom Lambeens, Naninga Lens, Veva Leye, Jelle Martens, Marlies Martens, Jan Op de Beeck, Pieter Van Troos.


Aambacht 3

Aambacht 3 applies an seemingly strict division between text and image, and is the result of a more elaborate group-editorial approach, whereby images were also produced by responding to each other’s initial contributions. This edition was put together following a consistent editing process, including in the graphic design provided by Jelle Martens. Toward the end of the collective editorial process, there was the leading idea of a parade of words and images, with the two texts delving deeper into questions relating to the experience of images and fantasies. These reflective articles cast the reader’s mind back to their experience of the varied succession of drawings, photographs, photo montages, collages, poems, fragments and formal elements.

Buy €15

Artist’s Book, Imprimitiv, 2016
Digital print, 20 x 27 cm, 84 pp, ed: 100






Grid/Lamer
Sébastien Conard

Grid/Lamer is a double publication in word and image by Sébastien Conard. This publication takes up from where abstract comics, concrete poetry and avant-garde artists’ publications leave off. The blue booklet Grid explores the interactions between printed ramps and road signs and concise, nine-word grids. The rust-coloured book Lamer unfolds this logic further by alternating the ramps with frottages and monotypes, with the words being developed in multiple languages to create short, complete sentences. The tidy grids and authoritative terms in Grid are in contrast with the cinematographic seascapes and wordplay in Lamer.

Buy  € 15

Artist’s Book, Imprimitiv, 2013
Digital print, 14.8 x 21 cm, Grid 74 pp - Lamer 52 pp, ed: 200



Aambacht 2

Ambacht 2 explicitly questions the notion of ‘comics’. By way of a translation of the introduction to an 1976 edition of Communications on the topic of ‘the comic and its discourse’, the editorial team provides some context for the chosen contributions, which comprise various graphical and textual pieces, as well as interventions that relate the two modes of communication explicitly to one another. Following on from the translated text by Michel Covin, Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle and Bernard Toussaint, there are word-images by Jan Op de Beeck, Veerle Herremans, Benjamin Monti, Warja Lavater, Tom Lambeens, Arnoud van Adrichem, Olivier Schrauwen, François Van Damme, Gerard Herman, Yūichi Yokoyama, Sébastien Conard, Walter Swennen and Joris De Rycke, all encapsulated in a design by Stijn Cremers.

Buy  € 15

ISBN 9781151024398

Artist’s Book, Imprimitiv, 2012
Digital print, 15 x 17 cm, 68 pp, ed: 150






Aambacht 1

Aambacht 1 is an eclectic edition featuring comic-strip contributions as well as texts on design and artistic work and literature more broadly. Interactions, narrative or otherwise, between word and image are the common thread throughout the contributions of Elisabeth Tonnard, Jelle Joseph, François Van Damme, Tom Lambeens, Rosaire Appel, Ilan Manouach & Pedro Moura, Laurent Kling, Peter Hulsmans and Jan Baetens & Olivier Deprez. In this way, the first edition brings together an essayistic photo-comic, a sprawling short story, a graphic score, a page of ‘asemic writing’, a gag comic and more. The various pieces are all collected within a design by Stijn Cremers, without any textual context or introduction.

Buy  € 15

ISBN 9781151018595

Artist’s Book, Imprimitiv, 2010
Offset, 15 x 17 cm, 68 pp, ed: 150