Overlijdensbericht aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1911

This announcement of Jan George Mulder’s death was made in 1911 in the Netherlands. It’s like a little painting, not of color but of information, a monochrome statement, if you like. The text is dense and formal, typical of the time, printed with precision. And yet, look closely: the edges are not quite perfect, there is a smudge here and there, a slight misregistration, the paper shows its age. These give it an intimate, handmade feel, belying the mechanical process of printing. It reminds me that even the most rigid structures have a human element, a vulnerability. There’s something inherently poignant about this piece. It’s a record of someone’s passing, but it’s also a record of a particular moment in time, of a specific set of social conventions. It speaks to a shared humanity, a shared experience of loss. You can find similar typographic works in the oeuvre of someone like Ed Ruscha, if you like the idea of the found text. Art is a conversation through time and space.