ARTIVIEW by ARCHES® Gérard Guy, epicurean, wordsmith and creator of art books.
Introduce yourself briefly
I like paper, ink, painting, poetry, music, theatre, literature and cooking. I tried to combine all these in a collection called “La Cuisine des Poètes” (The Poets’ Kitchen).
I enjoy meeting people and learning about their stories and the places they live. What I like most is the result of these encounters, which I bring to life in art books, because I love beautiful paper. My job is a bit like being a “book maker”.
What techniques do you use?
I use a lot of watercolour inks – they’re Japanese inks. I also make extensive use of charcoal, other types of inks, pencil, graphite, watercolour, and pure pigments mixed with linseed oil, charcoal and sanguine chalk, for example. I use oil paint a little less often because it takes longer to dry, which is slightly more complicated and leaves an extra layer on the paper. I also like oil pastels. I use several mediums and I love making collages. Velin d’ARCHES® is very compatible with everything and with all techniques – you can scratch it, rub it, caress it, and so on.
I make my collages with casein glues made from milk. I learned my craft from old masters who still made rabbit-skin glue. We heated the products and ground the pigments. “Maître Germond” (Bernard Germond), a non-figurative painter and engraver who was born in Orléans in 1944 and died in 1982, taught me all these techniques.
I use an inkjet printer to print my books. I print all the black inks on Velin d’ARCHES® paper. It isn’t complicated, but you have to be very careful because each sheet has to be fed by hand. You have to clean the print heads every 10 sheets because Velin d’ARCHES® is 100% cotton paper, so it produces lint and the nozzles can get clogged. It requires a lot of patience. Once I’ve printed the black, I leave it to dry for two or three hours, then I add colour to everything and assemble my book. Depending on the size of my sheets, I fold them into booklets of two or four pages, which I bind in one of two ways: I sew them by hand with linen thread, or I use a machine that does perfect binding.
What are the subjects that inspire you?
Nature and human nature – everything related to nature, including mushrooms, the forest and all living things.
Tell us about the book “La geste du pâté en croûte”
In French, a geste can refer to an adventure that recounts a historical event. The same word also means “gesture” or “movement”. The title of the book is a play on words around these two different meanings.
I wrote this book after meeting with Chef Frédéric Le Guen-Geffroy. Every year, a sale of galettes des rois, or king cake, takes place in Paris near the Le Magot theatre to raise money for a rare digestive disease. It’s for children who are born without a digestive tract. They’re fed through a tube until they recover. There’s a connection with cooking, since they can’t eat. The chefs’ association Les Disciples Escoffier sells galettes des rois and pâtés en croûte to raise money for an association called Les POIC that’s dedicated to chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction. It was on this occasion that I met Frédéric Le Guen-Geffroy, who won the world championship for pâté en croûte in 2023. He approached me because he wanted to write a book called “Cuisine des Poètes” (Poets’ Kitchen) with me. So I decided to turn the pâté en croûte recipe into a poem. It was written in sonnets and I included the chef’s preparatory sketches. That was my latest book, printed on Velin d’ARCHES® paper and published as a limited edition.
The limited edition can be ordered from Librairie du Compagnonnage (2 Rue de Brosse, 75004 Paris) and Librairie Gourmande (50 rue Vavin, 75006 Paris).
Why did you choose Velin d’ARCHES® paper for the limited edition of this book?
I was born in Annonay and I’ve been drawing and writing poems since I was a child. I’ve always drawn on Velin d’ARCHES® paper. I used to firmly believe that Velin d’ARCHES® paper was made in Annonay. For me, it was a paper close to my heart. One thing led to another, and when I created my collections, it was the paper that was best suited to making a book because it best brings out my colours and inks and I can sew it by hand. I met the ARCHES® company a few years ago at the Salon de la Gourmandise food festival in Épinal. I was presenting a book with a pastry chef from Lorraine, Gilles Marchal.
ARCHES® paper in one word?
Beautiful.
In your opinion, who is the greatest artist of all time? Why?
The one who painted the Lascaux caves, because it’s in line with my perception of nature and my idea of beauty. It was done with next to nothing: pigments, snail slime, saliva and even urine to set the paints. The artist dressed up his world and made the world of others more beautiful.
Do you have any other projects on the go or planned?
Following on from this “Cuisine des Poètes” collection, I’m thinking of writing a book about hare à la royale – a legendary recipe – again with a historical angle, put into poetry. I’m hesitating between several chefs.
I’ve just finished illustrating the limited first edition of a Swiss poet, Robert Fred, called “Entre chien et loup” (Between Dog and Wolf), on Velin d’ARCHES® paper. These are collages on paper. The paper enhances the drawings and the drawings enhance the paper. The book was recently published by Editions Slatkine in Geneva. I painted sheets with my inks, made cut-outs and then produced my pictures with these cut-outs. The glue soaks into the paper because it’s 100% cotton and it penetrates through the other paper to make them one, which is really very interesting. Of course, you always have to glue the thinner sheet onto the thicker one.
