Books
Sketch books
All process and progress originate and develop through sketches. Almost since he first started, Spike has kept nearly all his sketches and carefully maintained his sketchbooks. Looking back at the different sketchbooks through the years you can clearly see the different phases and evolutionary steps of each piece and idea.
Log books
As his sketchbook wasn’t always at hand, loose sketches started to take over at the beginning of the new millennium. Putting the sketches into plastic folders and then in a ring binders like in the early days was no longer an option. So, since 2001 Spike has regrouped his loose sketches into a yearly logbook with spiral binding. The logbooks became a nice melting pot of sketches and elements related to different experiences over the course of the year.
Exercise books
Spike’s love of the book is omnipresent, so it was obvious that using old books as a medium would become a real option. Spike loves being inspired and influenced by the book, so that he elaborates an exercise in a specific manner for a specific book. This exercise has proved to be very innovative in pushing the boundaries of possibility with repetitive play around the Spike shape.
Project books
For Spike the book that he produces about a project is the best way to exhibit the pieces. Within the medium of the book, Spike is able to tell the full story behind the project. He includes historical elements, explains the concept and context. Through the book the circle of the story is completed, and it very often remains the only trace of history of a building or site that has either been totally or partially demolished or converted into something new. The books are produced in a very limited print run. Each book is numbered and signed
A project with Arnaud DeMeyer in a very hidden part of the Metzeschmelz, a semi-subterranean site measuring around 500m2. As the title explains, the main feature of this project was the simple line. This is the connection between Spike’s pieces and Arnaud’s sketches. The pair worked together over five different sessions. Arnaud was sketching the unique surroundings in his sketchbook, while Spike painted on the walls.
Arnaud did a total of 14 sketches, and Spike painted 16 pieces. Spike thinks this may be his purest and most radical project so far.
Project: 2022
a coproduction with Arnaud DeMeyer
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 72
Binding: open binding
Copies: 111
Weight: 208 gr
Features: 4 different papers
Each book is numbered and signed
A project inspired by the football fanatics known as Ultras, a movement that combines many facets of youth subculture including an increasing use of graffiti. After watching a documentary on Maradona and his time in Naples, Spike was reminded of his own Tifo years supporting Internazionale. But the project soon became much more than just about creating and photographing pieces.
Spike challenged himself to find a way to portray the Ultras rivalry, and ended up creating seven fictional clubs that could be pitched against each other in a series of five “style battles”, each with its own distinctive characteristics at five different locations within the confines of the site he had chosen for the project.
The group dynamic of Ultras also made Spike realise he could involve graffiti writer friends and old football fans from the old days. This resulted in a subproject featuring some memorable photo-session as well as a challenge for the writers to create their own graffiti in the colours of their Ultras club, employing their own style.
The book ended up being a dual volume showcasing the Ultras project and the five style battles, and detailing the choices made in creating the seven clubs, while also delving into the social history of Ultras and its links with graffiti and other urban subcultures.
Project:
a 2-year project 2020-2022
in collaboration with the "Ultra Brutals"
The book is a double edition released with seven different covers in the colours of the Ultras clubs Spike created for the project. Each book contains a special set of 44 stickers. Fans of Panini can relive their sticker nostalgia!
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages:
Book 1: 128 pages
Book 2: 154 pages
Binding: Swiss binding
Copies: 105 (7 x 15)
Weight: 723 gr
Features:
- 7 different covers
- 44 stickers
- 2 joint books
- 5 foldouts of 7 pages
- 1 foldout of 4 pages
Each book is signed
A project in the former Findel airport terminal. Delayed came up as a name because the project was twice postponed for logistical reasons. While taking a picture of the iconic departure board, Spike noticed that one flight on the last operational day of the old terminal had been delayed, which was a neat coincidence. It was the first proper project of this kind, and therefore all the pieces were executed with a very neat finish.
Project: 2009
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 92
Binding: thread sewn
Copies : 111
Weight: 219 gr
Features:
Paperlay on cover
Booklet in book
2 different papers
Each book is numbered and signed
A project in the former Henri Funk brewery located in the Neudorf neighbourhood of Luxembourg City. The interwoven, multi-layered staircase with landings in between the floors made it difficult to understand the logic of the architecture. This gave it the impression of being quite a spooky place. As the buildings had been vacant for over 30 years, some parts where very dishevelled, which gave the whole project a particular roughness.
Project: 2013
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 80
Binding: thread sewn
Copies : 123
Weight: 244 gr
This was the first printed book of the series
Each book is numbered and signed
Writing in the waste/wonderland of Wiltz
A project in the former Eurofloor industrial site located in Wiltz. To refer to the “W” alliteration, the project turned out to require some wild negotiation. As the demolition of the site had already started, some of the buildings and places were disappearing quicker than anticipated. So, Spike had to make a timetable and negotiate access to certain spots. WWW became quite a colourful project.
Project: 2014
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 82
Binding: open binding
Copies : 77
Weight: 271 gr
Features: 4 different papers
Each book is numbered and signed
A project in a 60’s bungalow located in Weimerskirch in Luxembourg City. A series of 7 pieces, all very close to each other. The whole project was done on the ground floor, both inside the residence and at the back and front of the villa. The pieces were done in just 3 colours – white and black and orange – as almost the entire ground floor was covered by wall-to-wall orange carpet.
Project: 2015
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 48
Binding: stapled
Copies : private collection
Weight: 129 gr
Features: 2 different papers
Each book is numbered and signed
A project in an abandoned house and workshop located on the route d’Esch in Luxembourg City. This is where the former Surf’in shop was located. At the time it opened, back in the 1990s, it was one of the only shops in the city selling caps and streetwear. Over time the abandoned building became a home for pigeons. The smell in the house was acrid, but even that could not prevent Spike and his colleagues from executing the project. A colourful melting pot of pieces alongside leftover requisites.
Project: 2015
in collaboration with Craï
featuring Stick and Arnaud De Meyer
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 192
Binding: open binding
Copies : 18
Weight: 409 gr
Features:
Handpunched Cover
2 different papers
Each book is numbered and signed
A project in an abandoned house and workshop located on the route d’Esch in Luxembourg City. This is where the former Surf’in shop was located. At the time it opened, back in the 1990s, it was one of the only shops in the city selling caps and streetwear. Over time the abandoned building became a home for pigeons. The smell in the house was acrid, but even that could not prevent Spike and his colleagues from executing the project. A colourful melting pot of pieces alongside leftover requisites.
Project: 2015
in collaboration with Craï
featuring Stick and Arnaud De Meyer
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 112
Binding: thread sewn
Copies : 77
Weight: 265 gr
Features:
special print finishing on the cover
Each book is numbered and signed
A project in the former Secalt industrial site located in Pulvermühle in Luxembourg. As the name acknowledges, the project had to be executed with lightning speed. Because time was limited, Spike asked some of his friends (whom he named Ultras) to help him finish the project on time. The project ended up being a colouring by numbers project for the helpers. Thunderstrike was executed in only 3 colours: black, white and turquoise.
Project: 2015
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 94
Binding: thread sewn
Copies : 88
Weight: 256 gr
Features:
special print finishing on the cover
Fold out
Booklet in book
Each book is numbered and signed
A Spike-Stick-project in the former Arbed industrial steel work site located in Esch-Schifflange. Painting in abandoned places is something that Spike and Stick love to do, either together or alone. As Spike’s idea to realise a project with a limited colour-range pleased Stick, he asked Spike to commit to a common project by using 5 colours. They chose 3 primary colours – red, yellow and blue – as well as the 2 non-colours white and black. As the site was so vast, the project became a massive undertaking and some walls were such a size that both Spike and Stick worked on pieces that were unprecedented in scale for either artist.
Project: 2019
in collaboration with Stick
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 224
Binding: thread sewn
Copies : 151
Weight: 465 gr
Features:
special binding finishing on the cover
Booklet in book
2 different papers
An off-project in the context of Schmelz in the former Arbed industrial steel work site located in Esch-Schifflange. The Oneliner concept deserved the status of being its own project. It was the subject of 6 wonderful pages in the Schmelz book, but due to its size the photos didn’t really showcase its full potential. The pieces pay tribute to all the chalk marks still visible on the site –rough calculations on walls, technical drawings or simple scrawls. So the One book definitely has its place in the series.
Project: 2019
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 64
Binding: staple binding
Copies : private collection
Weight: 116 gr
Features:
4 different papers
Riso print on 8 pages
Each book is numbered and signed
The very last interventions in the former seed processing station located in Mersch. This project by Spike was initiated and then documented by photographer Christian Ashman. With Veil a new dimension came into Spike’s game. Some shapes of the pieces where just the cleaned-up veil of dust that seemed to have settled permanently at the site. The whole project is about playing with the transparency of the different layers of colour and non-colour.
Project: 2020
in collaboration with Christian Ashmann
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 96
Binding: Swiss binding
Copies : 88
Weight: 251 gr
Features:
special print finishing on the cover
special print finishing on the inside pages
chalkpaper booklet
Each book is numbered and signed
A project on pin-up posters in the former Arbed industrial site in Esch-Schifflange. Spike tend to call those pin-ups “lonely ladies”. Whenever he could integrate one into his project, he did. This time the whole project turned around this theme, as he found so many posters and photos left on the walls and lying around on this huge site.
The final result didn’t become a book with separate chapters, but a series of 3 magazines and a foldout poster, all sealed in a black plastic envelope.
Project: 2020
Format magazines: 150 x 210 mm
Format poster: 600 X 420 mm
Pages: 48 / 28 / 28
Binding: staple binding
Copies : 69
Weight: 266 gr
Features:
A black sealed envelope containing 3 magazines and a foldout poster
This book is a visual melting pot of a selection of photos by all the photographers who have helped Spike during his journey, since the beginning of his adventure in abandoned places and the realisation of those projects. After the Overbooked exhibition, the time had come to pay tribute and properly thank all those kind helpers.
Format magazines: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 40
Binding: staple binding
Print run : private collection
Weight: 109 gr
Features:
Punched hole on the cover
A three-and-a-half-hour action, at a hunter’s hut that was close to collapse on the edge of the woods near Wahl, a small village in the north of Luxembourg. The bizarre project stood for nearly two months, until the site was cleaned up.
Project: 2020
in collaboration with X-tof
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 36
Binding: hand tied with the white string used in the project
Print run : private collection
Weight: 85 gr
Features:
Self-made book
A Spike-Stick-project in the former Arbed industrial steel work site located in Esch-Schifflange. Painting in abandoned places is something that Spike and Stick love to do, either together or alone. As Spike’s idea to realise a project with a limited colour-range pleased Stick, he asked Spike to commit to a common project by using 5 colours. They chose 3 primary colours – red, yellow and blue – as well as the 2 non-colours white and black. As the site was so vast, the project became a massive undertaking and some walls were such a size that both Spike and Stick worked on pieces that were unprecedented in scale for either artist.
Project: 2019
in collaboration with Stick
Format: 150 x 210 mm
Pages: 224
Binding: thread sewn
Copies : 77
Weight: 465 gr
Features:
Booklet in book
2 different papers