Manifold Books
Kraijenhoffstraat 34, 1018RL Amsterdam
Please note: the entrance is located in the corridor between number 30 and 32


Manifold Books #16
Melting Without Compromise
Dan Zhu
12/06/2022 – 16/07/2022
Open on Fri-Sat 1-5 pm

Dear reader, 

We hereby invite you to Dan Zhu – Melting Without Compromise on June 12 from
3-5 pm. 

Dan Zhu (Jiangxi, 1985) started drawing prolifically at a very young age. Her earlier drawings depict a fantastic world incorporating aspects of daydreaming and dramaturgy. She started painting in 2015 and has recently become interested in the entanglement of matter and the unconscious.

In this potentially endless universe, colours form a material consciousness that also includes the artist herself. For her, painting is a form of self-communication: as soon as she addresses the paint it responds immediately.

Melting Without Compromise is about uncompromising forms of fusion: both in the unmixed colours of the layers of paint, occupying their own space and retaining their own character, as well as in the balancing act that the artist performs between an unyieldingly inefficient lifestyle and the forced adaptation to state power.

Sofar, Manifold Books has organised shows/projects with:
Ada M. Patterson, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Isabelle Sully and Matt Hinkley (Unbidden Tongues), Hadassah Emmerich, Eileen Quinlan, Melissa Gordon, To See the Inability to See, Ada Van Hoorebeke, Kato Six, Riet Wijnen, Patricia Esquivias, Aglaia Konrad, Özlem Altın, Gwenneth Boelens, Barbara Neves Alves, Baha Görkem Yalım, Martín La Roche Contreras, Dongyoung Lee, Maartje Fliervoet



Recent & ongoing:

Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee online radio show
Lineages – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s reading group
Listen on http://jajajaneeneenee.com
13/04/2022, 6–7:30 pm

In this reading group, between rongwrong and Manifold Books, we will share and discuss excerpts from Korean-American artist and writer Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s (Busan 1951 – New York 1982) experimental and influential novel Dictée. The session will explore the challenging diversity of genres, textualities, and modes of speech of the unorthodox and undefinable Dictée. Reading out loud excerpts and unpacking how these words, in our guests’ voices, can be “looking for the roots of language before it’s born in the tip of the tongue,” quoting Hak Kyung Cha.

With Maartje Fliervoet, Sara Giannini, Chaelim Kwon, Isabelle Sully, Mia You,  Arnisa Zeqo, Arif Kornweitz and Andrea González.

For this occasion we have permission to live broadcast ‘Monologue,’ an audio piece by Cha. The piece will not be archived.

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Monologue, 1977, typewritten text on paper, 8.5 x 11 inches, aired on KPFA Radio Station, Berkeley.

This radio show is a live iteration of the reading group Lineages, initiated by Arnisa Zeqo and Sara Giannini at Manifold Books. A close reading on Dictée and a common thread between Between the Teeth, by Isabelle Sully and Matt Hinkley at Manifold Books, and a forthcoming project at rongwrong, curated by Sara Giannini and Arnisa Zeqo. Both focus on the work of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and her legacy.

Fundraiser limited edition Ex Libris stamp
produced on the occasion of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha – Between the Teeth
designed by Isabelle Sully and Matt Hinkley (Unbidden Tongues)
Sponsored by Koninklijke Fabrieken Posthumus B.V.
Available at Manifold Books and via e-mail
€ 100,- each, edition of 25

In 1978, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha created a stamp titled Mot Caché (Hidden Word) for the International Rubber Stamp Design Exhibition at Stempelplaats, held in Amsterdam and speculated to have been organised by Ulises Carrión. Drawing on a connection between Cha and Koninklijke Fabrieken Posthumus B.V.—a long-running family business of stamp makers in whose shop the Stempelplaats was held—Isabelle Sully and Matt Hinkley designed a stamp on the occasion of Between the Teeth, produced in an edition of 25. Funds raised from the sale of the stamp will support Manifold Books’ programme for the coming year, while also providing the purchaser with a small dedication—to whoever they wish to gift a book, and to unbidden tongues everywhere, Cha’s included.

About Manifold Books
Manifold Books’ activities may be best described as a spatial investigation exploring connections between art and books. With each exhibition a few titles are added to its book collection (all including artists’ interventions). Manifold Books has received funding from: the Mondriaan Fund (2019); the AFK (2020). Currently its programme is supported by the AFK, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and Koninklijke Fabrieken Posthumus B.V.

Manifold Books is a foundation with an independent board consisting of:
Arnisa Zeqo (chair)
Stéphanie Noach (secretary)
Paul Domela (treasurer)

Regular opening hours (during presentations only): Fridays and Saturdays from 1-5 pm, or make an appointment via e-mail, Facebook or Instagram



New web-archive coming soon!