Prentbriefkaart uit archief Jan Veth c. 1896 - 1918

Curator: We’re now looking at a peculiar artifact from the archive of Jan Veth: a humble "Prentbriefkaart," which roughly translates to a picture postcard, dating from around 1896 to 1918. Editor: It seems terribly… blank. Are we sure there isn't something missing? The surface is so utterly vacant and off-white, it reads as a kind of anti-postcard, an existential void in paper form. Curator: Ah, but consider the materiality itself! This is paper, pulp meticulously formed and cut. The almost ghostly residue of lines indicates its intended function for postal service—the strict semiotics of address, message, stamp placement, regulated through a system of distribution. Editor: And who would bother keeping a blank postcard in their archive? It hints at untold stories, perhaps ideas or communications that never happened. What can we tell about Jan Veth himself by what he collected? Curator: Exactly! The unwritten signifies as much, if not more, than the inscribed. Think of the postcard, generally. A tool to express individuality amid industrialized correspondence; the medium democratizing art through reproducibility and accessibility. Editor: I’m thinking more about the actual lack of visible composition and how it plays with expectations. The postcard, typically overloaded with picturesque views, here mocks the tradition. What can we interpret from this conspicuous omission? Curator: I think the postcard functions here as a template, a raw ingredient of communication stripped bare. To really appreciate its form we must acknowledge the industrial standardization that it enabled through the rise of the postal services. Editor: Fair point. The more one contemplates its stark design and function, the more it starts to seem profoundly conceptual—almost a proto-Minimalist gesture! It lays bare its own means of distribution, yet manages to comment on the mediated, rapidly changing visual world it inhabits. Curator: Precisely! We witness not just an object, but also an entire network of relations, forces, histories encapsulated in this paper rectangle. Thank you for engaging with it so wonderfully. Editor: The pleasure was all mine.