Olivier Bertrand designs page-based objects that are sometimes folded and sometimes not, sometimes digital and sometimes printed.
His research into publishing focuses on appropriation and hacking the leftover from industrial production. With similar mindset, he runs a publishing house called Surfaces Utiles. He also wrote Froncer les sourcils(.pdf), a critical essay about the economy of contemporary publishing practices, and Les clôtures du paradis, a walk from enclosed gardens to illuminated pages. Since 2015, he has edited La Perruque, a 90 centimetre long magazine printed in the margins of regular documents, and publishing nonstandard type specimens.
He has designed some books including Baukunst monograph, a glossary for the use of asthenic villains, A Few Homers, the last misdeeds of Maxime Le Bon, Le Gamin, SPEED, two bricks, Armand Schwerner’s Tablettes, Pierre Leguillon's Légende punaisée dans le ciel, Dieter Roth au Frac Bretagne, Adelheid Duvanel’s monads,The Space in Between, Landing Gardens catalogue, Quaderni magazine, an issue of Camera, other poetry books, some web pages, and a medievalist typeface.
In parallel with his design and publishing activities, he teaches typography and editorial design at ESA le 75, Brussels.
A Few Homers
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2021, Piero Bisello (Ed.)
Publisher: Surfaces Utiles
Printing: Graphius
Supported by That Might Be Right.
500 copies, 10,5 × 16,5 cm, 104 pages (EN)
ISBN 978-2-931110-03-4
“Homer” is an English translation of the Hungarian word fusizni, a subversive practice from 1970s communist Hungary described by philosopher Miklós Haraszti: unbeknownst to their bosses, steel factory workers would distract themselves from the repetitive labour by using the machines and equipment to candidly make objects for themselves.
With texts and artistic contributions by Lotte Beckwé, Guillaume Boutrolle, Facteur Cheval, Miklós Haraszti, Lorenza Longhi, Emanuele Marcuccio, Laurent Marissal, Céline Mathieu, Batsheva Ross, Juan Pablo Saenz, Shervin(e) Sheikh Rezaei, Erik Thys and Bas van den Hout.