SCHUITEN

FRANÇOIS SCHUITEN 12 La Douce, Casterman 2012 Original plate no. 43. Signed. India ink on paper 44.5 × 60.5 cm (17.52 × 23.82 in.) Winning a competition to design "TrainWorld" in Brussels, François Schuiten was given access to all the models produced for the Belgian National Railways (SNCB). It was there that he met the Type 12 locomotive, nicknamed La Douce. I'm fascinated by the shifts in our society," he says. Those moments when professions disappear from one day to the next. Trades that were at their peak with quality craftsmen and craftswomen, and which, from one day to the next, no longer have any use. I'm thinking of all those people who worked in newspapers: engravers, typographers and so on. These moments are everywhere, and at the same time, other professions are being created. These are fragile and troubling moments, because they are human tragedies." The page where the hero chases a ghost is a perfect illustration.