Reading Characters is a project -consisting of both a publication and an exhibition- that examines language and reading, specifically focusing on typography. The project is co-organized by Eva van Bemmelen and Annabelle Binnerts and will take place at Billytown, The Hague.

For Reading Characters, each participating artist has developed a new work for both the publication and the exhibition. They all departed from the central theme of typography: the form or the origin of language and letters and how people communicate with each other. From there, they all moved in different directions: from dancing interpunction to a magician’s hand, a mother tongue, a heart-shaped guardrail, and a book that has never been read. Collectively, this exhibition aims to achieve a playful interplay between word, context, and material, an examination of what a word or character can be, and by doing so, widening our understanding of narration and communication.

On May 9, Britt Möricke (writer, lecturer, and typographer) will open the exhibition at 7 PM with a short talk on the (in)visible relationship between language and typography.

Participating artists: Clara Amaral, Jelena Vanoverbeek, Annelies Kamen, Hilde Onis, Ode de Kort, Puck Kroon, Eva van Bemmelen and Annabelle Binnerts.

For the publication, a special introduction is made by Maria Barnas.

Book design: Eva van Bemmelen and many others

Opening: May 9, from 17:00

Opening Speech / Booklaunch at 19:00 with readings by Britt Möricke, Hilde Onis and Jelena Vanoverbeek

20:00 Performance by Clara Amaral