The Book To Come


Session one, ‘The Book to Come’ – Reading Group: ‘Five Publications by Marcel Broodthaers’, proposed by Filiep Tacq. Photo: Bulegoa z/b.

Session one, ‘The Book to Come’ – Reading Group: ‘Five Publications by Marcel Broodthaers’, proposed by Filiep Tacq. Photo: Bulegoa z/b.


Thursday 23 April 2015


‘Five publications by Marcel Broodthaers’, proposed by Filiep Tacq


4pm / Bulegoa z/b, Bilbao / Session one, ‘The Book to Come’ – Reading Group.

“I see Marcel Broodthaers’ books not from an art historian’s viewpoint, but from that of a graphic designer who works with artists on their publications. Also from an ‘amateur’ position—highly valued by Marcel Broodthaers. I have worked over the years on publications by the artist with his wife Maria Gilissen, and discussed them with other admirers.

Broodthaers’ work interests me because he uses the different parts of the production process of a book to question the medium through its own limits. There is a lot for an artist or graphic designer to learn from this. MB uses resources from the way a book is made (type of paper, binding, black and white or colour printing, typography) to analyse its possibilities as an art object.

Because of a growing interest in Marcel Broodthaers’ work, access to his publications, which are mostly held in museum collections, is difficult. This is why I want to talk about them—to open them up again.”—Filiep Tacq


Filiep Tacq (Kortrijk, Belgium) has been working as an independent designer since 1984, specialising in books, art catalogues and artist books. He has taught at the Sint-Lucas Instituut, Gante and the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, and worked on publications by Francys Alÿs, Ibon Aranberri, Marcel Broodthaers, James Coleman, Lili Dujourie, Abbas Kiarostami, Chris Marker, Juan Muñoz, Pedro G. Romero, Michael Snow and Lawrence Weiner; and with institutions including the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona; DIA Centre for the Arts, New York; Manifesta 2, Luxembourg; Argos, Brussels; IKON Gallery, Birmingham; Lisson Gallery, London; Guggenheim, New York; MACBA, Barcelona; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Filiep Tacq set up the project The Book To Come with Bulegoa z/b (2015–2017), based on five books by Marcel Broodthaers.