Project

My grandfather was a village printer from Zwijndrecht. Unfortunately, he died at a young age, which meant that only a small part of his work survived. Using a few old printing plates that were still kept at my grandmother's house, I went searching through archives for any remaining printed materials and other materials. My grandfather was named Paul Bernaers and was born in Zwijndrecht. His father — my great-grandfather — founded Bernaers Printing Company, which was later taken over by my grandfather. Unfortunately, he died relatively young and therefore not much material or printed work survived. I am now searching for existing archives where his work is still preserved. Through printed materials, printing plates and remains from the old type cases, I tried to unearth a piece of history and give it a new place. History, and in particular printing history, is told through the lens of a few pioneers. I wanted to look at this history from a different angle, using my grandfather's printed work as an example. Isn't it true that we — and the generations after us — mainly remember what we learned in school, in (art) history lessons or what we see in museums? Aren't they always the same figures and events that color our view of the past? In the archives I came across, I discovered not only national organizations and associational life, but also a piece of history of printing itself: the reproduction, the typesetting — embellished with naively-looking illustrations and graphics. And so I also learned about my profession: graphic design. Not the kind you find online or that appears in books and on social media, with the big names and leading designers. But rather exactly what occupied people at a local level and what they found valuable. A shared history, viewed from the other side. And all of it shaped by the hands and clever interventions of one man: my grandfather.