Entering Stéphanie Gerbaud’s studio is like taking a trip back in time. A smell of old books, passed from hand to hand and from generation to generation, is permeated in the walls. Here the artist works “ old books that[elle] recovers scraps from municipal libraries ».
If these include illustrations, “ I practice like an “autopsy” because I work with my scalpel page after page to cut out the title, then a word on the next page, an illustration on the next…», she explains. When the work is not illustrated, like Homer’s Odyssey for example, “I am inspired by its content, its history. In this specific case, I spun the pages to create an additional spool for Pénélope».
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Stéphanie presents a second book, pierced as if it had been riddled with bullets. It is signed Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet assassinated by Franco’s militia. “It is a metaphor for the dictatorship that assassinates culturecomments the sculptor,I like my creations to have meaning. »
Painstaking work that she also puts to use on plans taken from tourist guides. “I’m trying to disrupt the way we read a plan. I explore geographic possibilities and create new territories.» This is how she connected the cities of Lyon and Cairo by water, noting that the Egyptian city was crossed by two rivers, like the capital of the Gauls. “Ilikes to look for what will bring together very distant territories. »
-Transforming city plans into lace
On a map of Venice, she removed private spaces and homes, revealing only public spaces, such as parks, streets, cemeteries… “I work a lot through emptiness, I remove to create, to reveal a new reading because a plan is already very graphic, it’s already perfect, there is no need to add anything. »
The artist, originally from Saône-et-Loire, has been immersed in the world of books all his life. “II have a degree in modern literature, then I trained in bookbinding. I was a French teacher for a time and I worked in the school libraries of the City of Lyon», retrace-t-elle.
His works are sometimes exhibited in Lyon, but also sold to individuals who can place an order. The books are between 200 and 400 euros. The price of the plans varies, for its part, depending on the format: count 200 euros for the small ones or 700 euros for the larger ones.
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