From July 4th until the end of the year the Dutch National Museum of Printing runs the fine little show “Creative
Paper”, showing what to be done with (printed) paper other than just
scribble and print upon. In an old landmark farmhouse in Etten-Leur
stacked with shiny and working (!) old industrial printing presses in
the south of Holland, visitors will be able to discover gems of paper
art ranging from classic origami, cut-out and pop-up to modern urban
paperkits. Even without this exhibition, I love the museum for all the
big moving, puffing, smelly, almost fantastical and dangerously looking
machines from a Jules Verne kind of era when creating machinery was done
with pride and creating books was a legitimate art form in itself. You
are allowed (but safely guided) to make prints yourself and see a
bookbinder or typesetter work their craft. It made me realize what has
been lost nowadays where printing seems to be reduced to ordering books
as cheap as possible online from some anonymous factory in
cheap-laboured China.

Working back in the days almost looks romantic

“Creative Paper” tries hard to inspire a new generation in showing the beauty in paper as it still can be found today, but especially the context makes the trip worth wile.

Safety first

Up close and personal