I am grateful to Onnik Karanfiljan for the opportunity of contributing a few thoughts in this first issue of the AFEB journal. Bulgaria has a long tradition in the field of bookplates, but this is perhaps a good occasion to remember what the specific characteristics of ex-libris are, and what differentiates them from other art graphics. Such a reminder is particularly necessary today - for artists and for collectors alike - because of the evolution which ex-libris, and books, have had in the last century.

The collecting of bookplates is not something very ancient, and only became popular in the last decades of the 19th Century. Starting in Britain, Germany and France, it quickly spread to the rest of Europe and even further afield. The main subject of interest at the time was old ex-libris, as the earliest printed bookplates date from the 15th Century and their evolution over 400 years was a magnificent reflection of the evolution of graphic arts in general. But quickly, sources from which old bookplates could be bought became scarce and attention turned to modern plates. Collectors started commissioning several different ex-libris for the books in their libraries, and exchanged them with other collectors. The practice developed strongly between the two World Wars, with each collector vying to have more beautiful and more artistic plates made for him than other collectors.

In parallel, during this period, books became less rare and precious objects than before. With the appearance of paperbacks and cheap editions, book lovers felt less need to honour their libraries by pasting bookplates into their volumes. Thus the dominant tendancy, during the second half of the 20th Century, was for ex-libris to become more and more autonomous collectible small graphics, less and less related to the book. There is however a strong trend today to try and revitalise ex-libris as they are by definition, and have been for over five centuries: small applied art graphics made to be pasted into books and to indicate their owner. If collectors, and the artists from whom they commission ex-libris, forget the essential nature and characteristics of ex-libris, then they might as well collect and commission free graphics, or P.F. cards, or menus or other ephemera.

So what are these characteristics? In fact, they are nearly all contained in the definition given above. They are art graphics - i. e. they are artistic, or at least have some aesthetic quality to them, and they are graphics, which means that they are printed multiples. This last condition corresponds to the need for a number of prints, to be pasted into a number of books. They are small - at least to the extent that they have to fit into a book. Ex-libris are a form of applied art, i. e. made with a purpose, not just created as free artworks. This is further specified when one says that they are made to be pasted into books, as - for example - ex-libris cannot be on a paper which is one centimeter thick, otherwise the book could not be closed. But further than this technical aspect, they should be conceived as something which is discovered when a person opens a book. Also, they are made to indicate the owner of the books, which implies that the ex-libris must integrate an inscription to that effect - normally the words "ex libris", the Latin for "from the books of...", followed by the name of the owner. But other inscriptions with the same meaning are perfectly acceptable, such as "I belong to John Smith", or "From the Library of John Smith". And if the purpose of the ex-libris is to identify the owner, the inscription should be legible!

Beyond these characteristics which proceed from the definition itself of what an ex-libris is, there are, in my opinion, three other elements which must be mentioned:

The first is that the ex-libris must have a motif or image on a theme which corresponds to the desires of the collector or bibliophile who commissions the work. It is, at best, a meeting of minds between the commissioner and the artist, and not just a pretty picture into which, at someone's request, the artist just adds a name.
The second is that the inscription should be part of the image of the ex-libris and artistically integrated into it. If it is just a typographic addition, or placed in such a way that the artist can print the plate without it, it tends to diminish the aesthetic quality of the print rather than contribute to it.

The third is that the ex-libris must be made for a real person or institution who at least could (and in my opinion should!) paste them (or at least part of the edition!) into his or their books. This implies that items which are made for persons who are dead (ex libris William Shakespeare), or not for persons (ex libris peace, or ex libris Lake Balaton), or hypocritically made for famous people but neither commissioned by them nor even sent to them and accepted as a present (ex libris George Bush, ex libris Michael Jackson) are false or pseudo-ex-libris and should be proscribed.

Obviously, many other aspects can be discussed, and I will here just mention one: whether the ex-libris must be an "original" or not. This is a very complex question as originality must be considered from different viewpoints. I think it should be an original work of art: a computer reproduction of Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' with some name pasted underneath would not, for me, qualify as having much interest. It should be original in that it doesn't seek to copy anything. To be worthy of being collected, an ex-libris does not however always have to be an original print made by the artist from the matrix, signed and numbered, as there are hundreds of thousands of bookplates in existence which were made by industrial processes but which are fascinating by their history, their artist or their owner. Much therefore depends on what sort of criteria the ex-libris collector, himself, sets for the objects of his collection. This, perhaps, is one of the most attractive features of ex-libris, and their collection. We are not dealing with postage stamps where each has a known value and there are accepted 'rules' of collection as to condition, etc. Ex-libris are still something which you can go and catch in the jungle with a butterfly net, as long as you know what you are trying to catch! Some persons like only blue butterflies, others like only striped ones... The important thing is to make sure that butterflies remain butterflies and do not mutate into dung-beetles or birds of paradise. Theirs is the charm of butterflies, and the charm of ex-libris is that of their specific nature: they must still be at least conceived as the homage of a booklover to the volumes of his library, and be the result of a creative complicity between an artist and a bibliophile.

Benoit Junod
Ex-libris Collector, Art Critic, Print Specialist - Switzerland