Rare Postcards from iceland

The artist’s book Rare postcards from Iceland by Stéphane le Mercier is based on a selection of found postcards from Iceland. The selection was purchased by the artist from a larger collection found in Stuttgart, Germany and depicts Icelandic landscape and meteorological/geological events, emphasizing various states of matter; ice, water, steam etc. The book contains the legends of the now lost postcards: Short lines of text (descriptions of natural phenomena) which appear as minimalistic sculptures on otherwise blank pages.

Stéphane le Mercier was born at Saint-Brieuc (FR) in the area ‘Les Cótes du Nord’. An area later renamed ‘Cotes du Armor’. Le Mercier always felt part of a northern landscape – the grey color, the rain etc. The editions depict the distance yet close encounter with a foreign however universal landscape, possible through ones imagination based on minimal descriptions. A reference to Laurence wieners TNT landscaping is a statement hidden in the book like a golden nugget.