This issue is the beginning of a new magazine. It's the first time artists and the collectors of exilibris in this country have had their own publication. The history of associated art-minded people of the small book-graphics in Bulgaria began in 1979 with their first meeting in Exlibris Club together with the first exhibition called Armenian Exlibris, put on in the Saints Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia. Since then, every year an exhibition has been staged in the same building of the first established club, later on, better known as Friends of Exlibris Club, right up until today. There hasn't been a great deal of literature on exlibris issued in Bulgaria.
Namely, there were a few books by Stoyan Shiklev, Prof. Evtim Tomov and couple of books by Peter Velichkov. There were even more articles scattered in different newspapers and magazines, but that was only the beginning- much more enthusiasm and good will, and less ambition and self-interest.

Back at that time we were looking for artists who could express
themselves in that new field.So we used to find them. We have been taking part in some international exhibitions abroad, we have been sending large Bulgarian expositions for exchange, and we have been getting encouragement and awards.The older generation can easily recognize the exlibrists mastering at the class of Preslav Karshovski, Pencho Koulekov, Mitko Bakalov, Mikhail Toshkov, Daria Yankova and a dozen of others. It is a great pleasure to learn at the meeting that somebody is admired abroad and that people the world over are interested in our work, sending information from FISAE in which we are members too.

That was the beginning. Bulgarian art-criticism is in debt to the exlibris. All the four books that I mentioned above are more like albums rather than an analysis of the creativity of the different artists included in them. People who really love books, collecting their own home library have really encountered the exlibris phenomenon.Because the small graphics itself characterizes its artist, no matter what his or her technique is. The genuine library of its own standard has its own hallmark.

Nowadays this hallmark could be some exlibris, but book connoisseurs would have nothing against that little picture stuck on a small volume if they come across it.

Every collector have their own interests. It's quite exciting when you open with trembling hands the envelope sent to you from the other end of the continent. The expectation itself is very exciting. You open the envelope. You can only see the corners of your new exlibris sticking out. Then you see the graphics, you grab the magnifying glass and start poring over each detail, looking for your symbol, trying to read the artist's mind and the way they see the stranger in their mind, and then suddenly you become empathetic with Artist's experience you either accept them and or you become indifferent to them. Then comes the piling up of exlibris in envelopes and files- But that's something collectors of exlibris are familiar with.

No doubt, experience and knowledge are acquired through the years, connections and correspondence with artists and collectors. It's only then that you realize that you cannot collect all the good, valuable books, neither do you have enough strength and energy to create that small art gallery at home. But when at last you come to realize it, your hands are tied up - your flat is packed with books, files and your personal archive. Your family looks askance at you because you always fail to help your wife and you don't give enough attention to your children. Do you still have enough time to go back to your first exlibris?

Now I know how far I can go, and how far my power and knowlwdge can go. Therefore, I would like our magazine to be like, no, even to be better than
the ones which we sometimes receive in the National Library. We would very much like this magazine to be about artists and collectors. Through it you can get information about the masters of painting and drawing as well as news about Bulgaria and we would like to help in creating your own graphic museum. We also hope this will open yet another door to the world of beauty that brings us together in the International Federation of Art-lovers of Exlibris.

Armand Basmadzhian

Filologist, Curator,
Secretary of the Association of Exlibris Friends in Bulgaria (AEFB)
Sofia, 4.04.2002