Society of Graphic Artists, Oslo 2009 (top), Stavanger Art Society, 2008 (bottom)

I began the Alphabet project in 1989 after a visit to Vilnius, Lithuania. Block printing was still common in Lithuania in 1989. I exhibited in the national gallery of Lithuania in May 1989. Even the exhibition poster was in block print there, the menues in restaurants and transport timetables were in block print, also. After returning to West-Berlin in spring 1989, I cut and printed two versions of the alphabet, each with 24 characters.

At the end of the 80es I had a woodcut show that toured Germany and Scandinavia, I was looking for ways to project forward the old and proven medium. One way was the exact forms of typography. The other way was the orfanic patterns of the wooden grain. I decided to proceed along both tracks.