Christian Beck
Das Stundenbuch der Palme
2002

With a text and 28 coloured lino-cuts by Christian Beck, on white Zerkall mould made paper, laid, 125 g/m², text in Times, 36 pt, hand-set, hand-bound, 40 x 31.5 cm, 68 pages, book cover printed with lino-cut, embossed spine.
Printed in the Druckatelier am Buchdruckerweg in Bern by Christian Beck and Ernst Schär. The hand-made bindings were produced in the Atelier für Grafik-, Foto- und Schriftgut­restau­rierung Michael Rothe, Bern.
Print run of 25 numbered copies. Five additional artist's copies not intended for sale carry the numbers EA I-V. Copies 24 and 25 are in Italian translation and written with a quill and Indian ink.
An edition with 18 multi-coloured lino cuts was produced in connection with the artist's book.

There was this bar, already exuding a whiff of the tropics, then the waiting, and the phone call. Then another bar, this time with her. We had all the time in the world. Another café. Alone, but not really. The beach. So much sand, full of sun and longing. A solitary hill and old towns by the sea. There was the hotel, the tranquillity in the park and the chaos in the meadows. Moments and pictures that flash up, overlaying and complementing one another. Fragments that gradually smooth over and turn into a story.
A diary with a collection of hours, all in a row, without any benevolent chronological order. Time is not measured on a ruler. It has vortexes, one seemingly wanting to overlay another. There, on this journey, somewhere in the tropics. The palm tree sways gently in the wind. The palm tree on the island. The palm tree in the sand. With its gentle rustling sound, its tranquillity, its indifference to the passage of time. From it we have learned how it joins one moment to another. Beneath it there are great stories and the briefest moments. And in the shadow of its leaves, a story is written in the sand. A new story, every time.

Christian Beck