books — Paul Tuttas

Alt Jabel*

In his book Alt Jabel*, Paul Tuttas returns to the place of his childhood, a small village in northern Germany in the former GDR. The author grew up there in a parish right on the edge of a pine forest. The book captures the feeling of returning to such a familiar place where not much has changed. In the illustrations and short stories we can encounter places like the dunes in the middle of the pine forest, the children's room of the author or the apple tree in front of the family house.
The illustrations are the result of a graphic experiment, a combination of woodcut and montotype printing. The book was published in an edition limited to 80 copies, of which the first half was published in German and the second in Czech.

year: 2024
publisher: none
language: German or Czech
design: Paul Tuttas
illustration and text: Paul Tuttas
edition: 80 (40 Czech and 40 German copies)
size: 16,5 × 23,5 cm
pages: 76
technique: inside: digital indigo print; dust jacket: original monotype and letterpress
binding: thread sewn binding, softcover with dust jacket

landscape : escapeland

The book landscape : escapeland contains a visual exchange between Isidora Stojanović and Paul Tuttas. The idea for the dialogue originated in a joint exhibition of the two artists at the KunstvereinGRAZ in Regensburg.

"The artists sent three works together with a word and vice versa. The chapters also list associated terms to the realized works that came up when shown to others. An inversion of what was first. In the beginning, there was the word … was it?
Stojanović and Tuttas build up landscapes with layers of letters and printed structures. She works with a typewriter, he prints with fabrics and stencils. Their connection is colour, medium, format. Horizons and mountains, above and below, rise and fall — subtle lines, harsh ones, meltings and cracks.
Two œuvres, two views interwoven in one binder. The closest they could be."
— an excerpt from the preface by Barbara Muhr

year: 2024
publisher: none
language: English
design: Paul Tuttas
illustration and text: Isidora Stojanović and Paul Tuttas
preface: Barbara Muhr
edition: 100 numbered copies
size: 18 × 13,5 cm
pages: 44
technique: riso print by paper can dance, Prague
binding: 5-hole pamphlet stitch

Grenzen / Hranice

Grenzen / Hranice (Borders) is a dialogue between the two artists Paul Tuttas and Johannes Steubl. They sent their graphics and texts on the subject of borders back and forth to each other, from Prague to Regensburg and back. Paul Tuttas chose printmaking as his technique for the dialogue — woodcut, linocut, material print and more. Johannes Steubl in turn drew his pictures.
Format and colour remain the same but the motifs and words change. Sometimes they refer abstractly and other times quite concretely to borders — but they always return to the stories and landscapes of the Bavarian-Czech border region.

Separated by borders,
connected by words and images
we search for a line,
digging through stories,
exploring landscapes.

The dialogue begins.
There and back, there and back, there and...

— from the introduction chapter of Grenzen / Hranice

year: 2023
publisher: none (author’s book)
language: German, Czech
design: Paul Tuttas
illustration and text: Paul Tuttas, Johannes Steubl
edition: 60
size: 35×22 cm
pages: 68
print: digital and letterpress
binding: glued softcover

Struktur

Limewood, a cabbage leaf, packaging film and sandpaper — all these materials have very different qualities. But what happens when you try to create a print with them? It is precisely this question that was the starting point for Struktur.
The artist’s book delves into the influence of a material's structure on the printing process and the resulting graphics. The five chapters deal with other aspects too: What happens when you print the same material on different papers? What patterns are created when different materials are printed on top of each other? How high does the pressure have to be before a material breaks?

The entire book was letterpress printed on different papers in an edition of 20 numbered prints. The text is written in German with a translation into Czech at the end of the book and an index listing all the materials used.

Year: 2023
Publisher: none (artist’s book)
Language: German, Czech translation in the back
Design, text and print: Paul Tuttas
Edition: 20
Size: 14×22 cm
Pages: 126
Print: material and letterpress
Binding: Japanese glued binding, soft cover

Spiegelungen

The Spiegelungen (Reflections) catalogue from my solo exhibition in Alt Jabel, Germany, showcases my printmaking journey spanning from 2022 to 2023. The graphics show individual impressions of different places — the Baltic Sea, the Giant Mountains, the forest in Mecklenburg, and the Scottish Highlands.
The catalogue shows all graphics from the exhibition as well as their reflections, the plates from the printing process. Additionally, the book offers a visual index, complete with work-in-progress imagery and descriptions for each showcased work.

From the exhibtion text: “Since the printmaking technique and its process are so crucial in the work of Paul Tuttas, the book not only presents the finished prints but also the very plates that birthed them, made out of wood, linoleum, and metal. Every one of them bears witness to the artist's distinct approaches, whether delicate lines are etched into zinc or rugged textures are carved with a chainsaw into the wood.”

Year: 2023
Publisher: Dat Lütt Museum, Alt Jabel
Language: German
Layout: Paul Tuttas
Edition: 100
Size: 13,5×21 cm
Pages: 80
Print: digital
Binding: glued soft cover, open spine

kunstpreis

The kunstpreis catalogue contains an overview of selected graphics and books from 2021 to 2024. This book is part of my victory in the kunstpreis competition at the University of Regensburg in 2022 and was published by the Universitätsverlag Regensburg.

Year: 2024
Publisher: Universitätsverlag Regensburg
Language: German
Design: Paul Tuttas
Size: 27 × 21 cm
Pages: 36