Jacqueline Mesmaeker
Secret outlines – Versailles
1996-2020
Offset printing and pencil drawings on Gardapat 150g paper
Cardboard slipcase covered with vintage sheepskin-textured and gilt-embossed paper
Leporello: 14 x 10.3 cm (folded) or 336 x 10.3 cm (unfolded)
Slipcase: 14.2 x 10.5 x 1.2 cm
Edition of 30 copies, signed, numbered, and including 5 original drawings by the artist
Secret Outlines (1996) is a series of eight works in which Jacqueline Mesmaeker wove her way into various books from her collection using graphic interventions, collages, and cuttings. Using the book as an exhibition space that is portable and free of institutional and financial constraints, she playfully explored the margins and interstices of literature and history.
Among these books was an old tourist leporello from the Palace of Versailles, a “memory place” that has been the subject of many of the artist’s works since her famous piece Versailles avant sa construction [Versailles before its construction] (1980).
Secret Outlines – Versailles (1996-2020) is a facsimile reproduction of the booklet that includes her original interventions. For this edition, Mesmaeker has also added five new drawings made with Caran d’Ache sapphire blue pencil to each of the thirty signed and numbered copies.
Jacqueline Mesmaeker’s exhibition took place at Keijiban from March 15 to April 14, 2021.