The Bookplates of Vladimir Vereschagin IV

One of the interesting projects Vladimir has been working on for over ten years, is the creation of a complete deck of playing cards in exlibris form. This idea is remarkably simple and tempting for bookplate collectors: the owners of each exlibris could exchange them and collect the complete set. These cards are made for the famous bookplate collectors, such as Luc Van den Briele, Agaath and Jos Waterschoot, Wout and Miets Meulemans, William E. and Maryann Butler, Nicola Carlone, Dante Fangarezi, Spartas Cadoli, and the National Museum of Cards in Belgium. Life is a game, and why not commission a card from the artist, and get into the company of Aces? After all, bookplate collecting has an element of risk, gambling, and passion in itself. It is well illustrated in one of the latest bookplates, created for James P. Keenan: dinosaurs, reptiles and snakes exchange bookplates at a congress on the back of an ancient tortoise.

Vereschagin is known to bookplate collectors not only as an artist, but also as an entrepreneur, organizing art projects and exhibitions, local and international, all celebrating art. Vladimir helped in organizing the following exhibitions: “Interproject” and “Russian Artists for Holland’s collectors” in Belgium, Holland, and Russia; “World Exlibris” and “Work of Uri Nozdrev in Belgium; “Graphic Art of Nikolay Batakov” in Switzerland; “The Artists of St. Petersburg” in Hamburg, Germany; “ Art of V. Pogulaev” in St. Petersburg, Russia, and “ The Artists of Tsarskoe Selo” in the United States and Germany. The art is a method of discovering the world!

Travel is a hobby for Vereschagin. He has been present at exhibitions with his inseparable camcorder in many European countries. Recently Vladimir visited America : Kalamazoo, Chicago, New York : well deserved success and tons of impressions. New exhibitions and new friends mean that there will be new bookplates of this tireless artist. “If you want to be happy, be happy”. This aphorism of Kosma Prutkov could be the name for the exlibris Marlies and Dieter Kogler and credo for the artist from Tsarskoe Selo.

The work of Vladimir Vereschagin is held by many prestigious libraries and museums, among them the Library of the Hermitage, the Russian National Library, the Smithsonian Institution, the Gutenberg Museum of Book Printing, and the Museum of Exlibris, Malbork, and hold prized places in private collections around the world.