Elisabeth Tonnard

“A child without mother or father, with no brothers or sisters, who belonged to no one and had no home anywhere, came to the idea of running off, all the way until the end of the world.” Robert Walser, from ‘The End of the World’

My “Robert Walser book” (as some of you may have come to know it) has finally been finished and copies are now ready to be shipped. Both conceptually and practically it was a book journey full of detours and stops and restarts. Starting with an observation at the site of Robert Walser’s grave, after retracing his last walk – or perhaps already with a Robert Walser storybook I received as a child – it did take a while to get to the end of the world (not to worry: things are simpler there).

The End of the World is an artist book in literary format about Robert Walser’s final walks and silences. The book transports the reader to the last 23 years of Walser’s life, which were spent at a psychiatric clinic in Herisau, Switzerland. From his arrival there in 1933 to his death in the snow on Christmas Day 1956, Walser ceased writing. On Sundays he would take long walks, a contrast to the weekdays filled with sorting tin foil at the institution’s workshop and making crossword puzzles in the common room.

The book draws on excerpts from Walser’s asylum file and on photographs that I took at the graveyard in Herisau where Walser is buried. The photographs show scenes depicted on the gravestones surrounding Walser’s grave. The dreamy landscapes and paths encountered there seemed like a continuance of Robert Walser’s walk to me. The layout of the book mirrors the repetitive nature of Walser’s days, weeks, years at the clinic – and blank space is treated as a meaningful element.

The book concludes with an afterword, overview of sources and biographical sketch.

The initial research was made possible by a residency at the Jan Michalski Foundation, in Montricher, Switzerland. The book production was made possible in part by grants from the Jaap Harten Fund and from the Mondriaan Fund, both in Amsterdam.

The book is self-published in an edition of 350 copies. It is printed in duotone offset and has a cold-glue binding. Printing and binding were done at Wilco Art Books in The Netherlands. 208 pages, size 11,5 x 18 cm, 23 photographs. ISBN: 9789080788435.

Priced at € 37,50. Shipping is € 5,- in The Netherlands, € 8,50 elsewhere. Order here or by contacting me, also of course with your questions and comments.

Further info on this page.