Les éditions La Chambre being founded late 1988, early 1989, Luc Derycke started as a publisher for Imschoot, uitgevers where he would, together with Kaatje Cusse and later Cornelia Lauf, initiate, develop and publish art- and artists’ books till 1992. He also was the graphic designer of many of these publications. After 1992 he was, as Les éditions La Chambre, a book packager and designer, and published a number of books with Catherine de Zegher and Ilya Kabakov. From 1996, trying to escape the financial burdens of book publishing, he concentrated on graphic design, only occasionally publishing a title under the LD imprint, with amongst others Wim Delvoye and Gabriel Orozco. In 2000 he took up publishing again under the MERZ imprint, till in 2005 he tought his publishing activities would best be served by a non-for-profit organisation that he could share with others in the field. MER. Paper Kunsthalle now operates as a catalyst for book projects that do not claim to be artists’ books to the full extent, but still are, as art exhibitions, carriers of art, with all that entails.

MER. was founded to examine the possibilities and position of the book medium as a place to exhibit art. The art book, since its beginnings, has traditionally been developed as a catalogue or an aide-mémoire, and seldom has been considered as a space to exhibit living art. However, artists from Dada to the appearance of the artist’s book have always thought of books as exhibiting spaces. MER. will be involved with providing this kind of activity through an institutional platform. MER. calls itself a Paper Kunsthalle, and plans to initiate, develop and support art exhibiting within the book medium.

MER. Paper Kunsthalle evolved from MERZ, an imprint that gathered the books privately published by Luc Derycke (in association with various institutions) since 2000, itself evolving from LD and Les éditions La Chambre, imprints under which Luc Derycke has been publishing books since 1992.

One of the latest developments within MER. Paper Kunsthalle was the birth of the audioMER. project. AudioMER. aims to release new, experimental and avant-garde music, with a strong focus on the music carrier itself.

www.merpaperkunsthalle.org