Lang zal ze leven/Happy birthday to you

Condition: Very good copy
29.7 × 42 cm
52 pages of black and white images on mint green paper
21 × 29.7 cm, 28 pages of black and white texts on white paper
1 poster, 70 × 42 cm
10 small colour photographs manually glued
10 colour leaflets manually mounted with scotch tape
The publication is wrapped with a white ribbon

Concept & design: Anouk Kruithof
Photographs: Anouk Kruithof & Sascha Landshoff (Anouk’s assistant)
Introduction text: Armand Hoppener
Text: Quotes from patients
Interviews & editing: Anouk Kruithof
Self-published
Dutch / English, 2011
Edition of 500

This book was nominated for the Dutch Doc Award 2012 and has been exhibited at FOAM Pop In Amsterdam, Museum Het Dolhuys Haarlem, and Tropenmuseum Amsterdam.

Happy Birthday to You is an unconventional publication about a social project by Anouk Kruithof, undertaken during her stay at the artistic residency Het Vijfde Seizoen at the Altrecht psychiatric unit in Den Dolder in 2011.

Kruithof interviewed ten patients about their birthday wishes and then celebrated each birthday according to their personal desires. “One of them wanted a big party with live performances and herring on toast with fresh orange juice for all guests, the next wanted to go to Utrecht to smoke a birthday joint.”

Anouk asked each patient for their favourite colour, and each received a cake decorated with their portrait photograph. She did this deliberately, as cutting and eating “your own face” helped people feel more at ease.

The publication combines interview quotes with photographs of handmade 3D sets, where documentary images of the birthday celebrations are presented as small exhibitions. It offers a chronological overview of the ten birthdays and of the honest collaboration with people living with psychiatric conditions.

Martin Parr, in The Independent and PhotoEye Best Books of 2011:

“My big obsession is photobooks, and because of this interest, a book arrives nearly every day. Happy Birthday to You by Anouk Kruithof really stands out. This Dutch photographer arranged a project in a psychiatric hospital to make a birthday cake with patients that depicted a wish for their birthday. She shoots these and puts behind a small paper ‘door’ and places cut-out photos of the people on the surrounding pages. This is probably the wackiest book of the year.”

Also selected for PhotoEye Best Books of 2011 by Alec Soth and Antone Dolezal.

This is a fantastic example of an unconventional approach to bookmaking. Kruithof’s cut-and-paste design on this oversized newsprint format may appear simple at first, but her intimate collaboration with psychiatric patients and thoughtful approach are anything but.