About Books & Birds

About Books & Birds

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About Books & Birds

_______________________________________ My First Taschen 4 _______________________________________ Vanessa arrives 6 _______________________________________ This book is a passionate kiss 8 _______________________________________ Raindrops 11 _______________________________________ Revolt 13 _______________________________________ Habitat 13 _______________________________________ Noblesse Oblige 15 _______________________________________ Pearl necklace 17 _______________________________________ Altar 17 _______________________________________ The imagination

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_______________________________________ Balanced energy 19 _______________________________________ John and Mary

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My First Taschen So small, that first book, but such content! Wow! Who thought of this? Who publishes this? It was this little book, a present from my father in 1997, that first drew my attention to Benedikt Taschen. It is the book ‘Jan Saudek 1987-1997’. A breathtaking juxtaposition in photographs of erotica with the long, slow slide from youth to old age, from bloom to decay. Eroticism in a book making me go red all over the first time I paged through it. Is it shame?

Shyness? Excitement? Or simply amazement that someone had the balls to publish this? I have to know more about this man!

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‘…a book making me go red all over the first time I paged through it’

wow 5

‘…Vanessa is delivered to my door, wrapped in brown paper and cardboard, suggestively urging me to unwrap her’

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It is 1981. I am barely 16, living in the provincial town of Maastricht, when I first get acquainted with Vanessa del Rio, together with a friend in an obscure theatre in Amsterdam. It is this Latina porn star who serves us up what is to become my first adult film. The impression she leaves on me I will never lose.

It is 2007 when I get wind of a publication about Vanessa by Taschen Verlag, the publisher whose works I am now gradually becoming rather familiar with.

Oh Vanessa, back in town! Back in mind!

It is now no longer enough to go down

to the shop and get it. No, this calls for phoning Cologne. Taschen headquarters.

I speak to Perihan Dogan, direct sales manager. She sells me my first Collector.

A few days later, Vanessa is delivered to my door, wrapped in brown paper and cardboard, suggestively urging me to unwrap her. My hands are shaking like I’m 16 again as I strip Vanessa of her packaging, layer by layer. The binding is leopard-skin print, and with the piercing, cherry-red lipstick kiss of the introduction, she leads me on, winking, to penetrate deeper into the book.

‘From that moment on, I’m a moth to the Taschen flame’ 7

Groot Groter Sumo

Foto boek: Helmut Newton

I call Cologne again to ask whether they have anything else in the catalogue as bold, enthralling, and artistic as this.

It is a long conversation: about the editions, about the artists and their art, about extreme formats, about collectors, working methods, and techniques.

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This book is a passionate kiss

Among my absolute favourites is the Taschen book of the work of Walton Ford, animal illustrator and painter. The collector’s print shows hummingbirds caught among ‘limed blossoms’. I cannot help but recall the way I catch birds myself, in great numbers with nets, to ring them and then send them on their way to their next flight.

Their numbers have increased every year since I started, in 2009, and they are now thousands. In light of my decision to stop breeding exotic birds in the coach house where the Taschen collection is now housed, this building and the Walton Ford etching bring everything full circle.

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Raindrops flow together into a brook, a stream, a waterfall‌ 10

Raindrops My collector’s addiction is awakening. Peri agrees to send me a number of ‘teasers,’ the amuse-bouche of the book world. Bait, to catch a customer. And it works, because the teasers are works of art in their own right, just screaming to be collected themselves. I begin to feel like nothing from Taschen can be considered transitory; from here on I begin saving every wrapper, every paper, every envelope, every cardboard box. It’s as though Benedikt is making the books especially for me.

Taschen has become my obsession.

A little later, when I’m holding ‘An Encyclopedia’

by Danish-Icelandic sculptor and conceptual artist Olafur Eliasson in my hands, I know there’s no going back. That volume, with its rippling raindrops captured on the cover, is still a favourite in my collection.

From there, it escalates quickly. One art edition after another is delivered to my door. Raindrops flow together into a brook, a stream, a waterfall. 179 collectors and art editions and 650 trade editions – many in multiple copies – with stunning accompanying signed prints.

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‘Ik buig voor de gedachte dat zelfs het grote huis te klein voor Taschen is‌

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Revolt

Habitat

Where should I keep this bulging collection? The library would seem to be the obvious choice, but it’s not big enough. A bigger room? Multiple rooms?

Along walls, under beds, on tables, under tables, wherever there’s any space to be found, books accumulate – many not even unwrapped. Inch by inch and yard by yard, they eat up the space intended for us, the ones who live here. A silent revolt begins to grow among my wife, our nine children, and the staff - a revolt against Taschen.

It becomes clear to me that the collection must be united, it has to be visibly put together, but that every book also merits its own attention, and so needs its own habitat.

It slowly dawns on me that even our vast house is not big enough…

I look out of the window at the 19thcentury coach house in the park, where I long raised exotic birds, and it comes to me: this will be my Taschen museum.

The Hall of Fame!

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Noblesse Oblige

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Pearl necklace

Altar

Every time I enter the new space, I see everything that changed during the metamorphosis. A sustainable renovation worthy of the content.

Sometimes I’m aware of how my books act like a beautiful, demanding woman on whom you might lovingly bestow a diamond ring, a pearl necklace.

Indeed, that’s what drove me to place selected works of applied art here, to serve as a balance to the heart of the exhibition.

An extraordinary book stand, design by architect Tadao Ando, stands on an antique table over four metres long.

It is the ‘altar’ to the breathtaking photography of Sebastião Salgado.

This is a sacred work. Two ceramic chalices by artist Guido Geelen flank Sebastião Salgado’s photography as the Holy of Holies.

The centrepiece is the eight-metre long display case with deep, built-in drawers, designed by Theo Faesen, made from stainless steel, hardened glass, and aged oak.

Then, there are the dozens of roughhewn wooden steps of the rugged staircase, each cut from a single block of rock-hard wood by sculptor Xander Spronken. And the rare narwhal tusk, the Coco de Mer, and the antique engraved sperm whale tooth all have their place here.

The spectacular display cases, creations of hand-forged steel and hardened glass

by Xander Spronken, present a few of my favourites from the collection.

Here, my collection resides in a place befitting its grandeur. In my thoughts, and in my desires, I see the next Taschen in the making...

Here, the Rousseau Collection resides in a place befitting its grandeur.

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Father and son, Mr Chrit Rousseau holding Jan Saudek’s booklet and Mr RenÊ Rousseau proudly standing beside him, holding the Narwal tusk and the Coco de Mer.

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De imagination I have always been fascinated by the narwhal, a toothed whale that lives in Arctic waters. The male has a unicorn-like, twisted tusk that he uses as a feeler. The narwhal grows up to four to five metres in length, excluding tusk. I have long cherished the tusk as an object of my ‘boyhood dreams,’ and find it a fine complement to the erotic publications of Taschen. I can no longer imagine the Rousseau Collection without it.

Its tendril-like appearance and spiral texture make it a direct artistic allusion to a phallus. A prick.

Balanced energy The response to this piece comes from another extraordinary object from my collection. The Coco de Mer, a double-nut from a palm tree found only on the Seychelles. Its curves and plunging lines suggest the innermost folds of a woman. A pussy.

John and Mary Finally, there is the antique sperm whale tooth with the engraved images of a puffin on one side and the beguiling lovemaking of John and Mary on the other. With the Coco de Mer and the narwhal tusk, it completes a triptych reflecting pure erotica and pure nature.

Polar opposites with an inescapable connection, like my Rousseau Collection.

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Published by Rousseau Collection Belgium Spring 2014 I would like to thank - Cecile Maas - Chrit Rousseau - Benedikt Taschen - Vanessa del Rio - Perihan Dogan - Chiara Donati - Alexandra Troica - Adrien Santo - Valeriane Moyersoen - Charles de Cordier Concept René Rousseau Jaak Crasborn Text René Rousseau Matthijs Smits Photography John Dummer Graphic design Crasborn Grafisch Ontwerpers