Stanley Brouwn | Tatvan

Stanley Brouwn
Tatvan
Munich, Germany: Aktionsraum 1, 1970
[32] pp., 15 x 21.5 cm., stapled
Edition size unknown

Sometimes refered to as X-Tatwan (as it appears on the inner title page) this is Brouwn's first conceptual artist's book. Tatvan is a town in Turkey where the railway abruptly ends.* Brouwn traveled there to talk photographs of an imaginary railway extension. These, however, are not featured in the book. The book consists of single page 'conceived' distances between various locations, which are listed only as the variable 'x'. For example:


x - Tatwan 1000 000 000 000 000 000 000 km

or

x - Tatwan 1000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 km



The lengthy distances suggest that Brouwn intended his imaginary railway extension to be interplanetary.

The title is available at wildly different prices, ranging from $45.00 US to £495.00.




*Forty years later the city's very short wikipedia entry contains the following information:

"Tatvan is connected by Train ferry across 96 km of Lake Van to Van which avoids 250 km of railway construction in mountainous terrain. This is a low capacity route which will be replaced by a proper railway when traffic increases."