Poirters adds: “Most nuns in earlier centuries didn’t go out much. Only on the convent grounds. Through reading, they could still connect with the world outside the cloister.”
The big book
By analyzing all the old books of Soeterbeeck over many years, studying the joys and sorrows of the nuns, and tracing names in the books back to actual convent residents, Poirters feels he’s come to know those women better.
From his collaboration with Kienhorst also came a major publication, titled Book Collections as Archaeological Sites. “702 pages about the suffering and use of these convent books. Very useful for people with insomnia ... or to keep by the door in case a burglar breaks in,” jokes Poirters. “It was published in 2023 by an academic publisher and costs more than 200 euros. That's unaffordable for the average person.”
The researchers wanted to make their findings accessible to a broader audience. “After the book presentation, Hans and I were approached by Wouter Prins, senior curator of Museum Krona in Uden. He suggested we tell the story of the nuns and their books in his museum.” And so, Prins invited the two scholars to translate their research into an exhibition for everyone.
No beauty contest
That exhibition called Graven in boeken is now open to the public. But like the making of 'the big book', it was quite a process. “It’s like adapting a book into a film: the movie is always different. Not necessarily worse, but different,” says Poirters. “Here too, we had to translate a book into another medium, hoping the message would come across just as well.”
That translation wasn’t easy, because the books certainly don’t win any beauty prizes. “Of course, Hans and I wanted to show the books, but there was a practical problem. We didn’t have the luxury of displaying the most beautiful volumes in glass cases. We had to work with broken and heavily used books. We quickly concluded that a traditional book exhibition wouldn’t work for us.”
Photographer Anton Houtappels captured the worn books in striking detail. His large-format photos are on display in Museum Krona. “When you look at the photos, you can almost feel the cracks in the paper.”
“Like our book, the exhibition is structured like an archaeological dig. The deeper you go, the further back in time you travel. That’s the experience when you visit Graven in boeken. The first room takes you to the 1950s — 1958 in particular, when the Soeterbeeck library was reorganised. The further you go, the further back in time — all the way to the 15th century.”
Retirement
Now that the exhibition work is complete, the collaboration between Poirters and Kienhorst is also coming to an end. “Hans has now retired. We’re working on one final book about a 17th-century correspondence between the Soeterbeeck nuns and the Bishop of ’s-Hertogenbosch and then it’s over. That’ll take some getting used to after so many years working closely together. We’ve both spent years marveling at the broken book and despite its poor condition, we’ve always seen its beauty.”
Graven in boeken
Graven in boeken invites visitors to see books differently: as objects, as carriers of lived history. The exhibition can be visited at Museum Krona until Sunday, January 11, and can be seen as an ode to the broken book. The project was realized in close collaboration with the Radboud University Library, Soeterbeeck Cultural Heritage Foundation, the Titus Brandsma Institute, photographer Anton Houtappels, and researchers Hans Kienhorst and Ad Poirters.
Do you want to win two tickets for the exhibition?
Museum Krona is giving away two pairs of tickets. What do you need to do? Send an email to recharge [at] ru.nl explaining why you would like to visit this exhibition. The editorial team will contact the winners. No correspondence will be entered into regarding the outcome.
Would you like to contribute to the preservation of the Soeterbeeck collection? You can do so here.
