Publicatie over het redden van te water geraakten, 1768 1768

Editor: This is "Publicatie over het redden van te water geraakten, 1768", or "Publication on rescuing people who have fallen into the water, 1768." It's an engraving, etching, and typography work by Johannes (I) Enschedé. I’m struck by how much text there is. It feels very dense and bureaucratic. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Well, let's consider the materiality of this announcement. It’s typography, print, so immediately we are dealing with accessibility to a wider audience in 1768, the labour of the printer Johannes Enschedé. Engravings and etchings weren't cheap, but they allowed for mass distribution compared to individually hand-written notices. Who would be consuming this text, and in what context? This wasn’t high art hanging in a salon. It was utilitarian. What is the function of art, if not something visually stimulating or culturally or personally enriching? What labor went into producing this work? Editor: I see your point, the piece has less to do with traditional aesthetics and more with its functionality as a tool for communication within a specific societal structure. Would that make the social class, perhaps the literacy of Haarlem's townspeople, important factors? Curator: Precisely. We also see how knowledge – in this case, information on how to save someone from drowning – becomes a commodity circulated and controlled through print. The lions, the crown. Does this reflect control? Perhaps. It highlights the relationship between power, information, and the very physical act of making and disseminating printed material. It shifts how we think about art historical importance to one based on distribution methods. Does that help change your perspective? Editor: Definitely! Focusing on the means of production really brings out aspects I hadn't considered, thank you. Curator: Indeed!