Exlibris of B.Pikulitska 1975

Curator: This is Oleksandr Aksinin's "Exlibris of B.Pikulitska," created in 1975. It’s an etching, a print meant to be pasted into a book to mark ownership. Editor: Oh, a bookplate! It has such an antique air. Looking at it, I get this peculiar sense of a secret society. Very symmetrical, like a crest. It has this contained energy, poised like a curious question mark, don't you think? Curator: Definitely. Consider the means of its production, the precise labor involved in etching these intricate details into a metal plate, then repeatedly inking and pressing to create each unique print. This process reflects an intentionality, a care that elevates it beyond mere decoration. And each image being hand pressed, ever so slightly different each time… Editor: Exactly! The materiality brings you in close. This isn’t some mass-produced image; each has its subtle thumbprint, like whispered secrets. The central flower form reminds me of something from a medieval alchemist’s notebook! What do you make of that strange figure perched atop? Curator: A symbol, I suspect, intended to express something of Pikulitska’s personal identity. Note how the composition also includes bookbinding tools worked into the frame around the whole image; there is the emphasis of craft and learning, which may relate to Pikulitska’s profession, her own intellectual work, the means by which books became so valuable for people to produce artworks about them. Editor: It speaks to a very particular intimacy between reader and book. The symbol, whatever it is, offers us an insight into her inner landscape. It makes you want to know the stories she cherished. What a perfect small gift an "ex libris" is—a key to a secret garden! Curator: Absolutely, and viewed materially, it gives a way for one person's mark to affect an object as important and long lasting as a bound collection of stories, knowledge and information. The labor and materiality of Aksinin's creation gives it a longevity for its first audience and also viewers in our contemporary moment. Editor: And I love thinking of it as a tangible reminder of a time when books held a very special, almost sacred place in people’s lives, don't you? Something wonderfully old world. Curator: Yes, something for us both to ponder, bringing the world, craft, book ownership, and symbolic representations into our very material moment here.