By Andrea Creuz and Lise Skou
Copenhagen, Denmark: Self-published, 2010
Pages: 116
Dimensions: 8.5 in x 11.5 in
Cover: Paperback
Binding: Signatures stitched and glued together with an uncovered spine (see photo below)
Process: Offset:
Color: b&w, color plates throughout
Edition Size: unknown
ISBN: 978-98-994239-0-3

This beautifully produced book is made for easy copying. The signatures of the book were stitched together and then book binding glue was applied to the back of the spine. A cover wasn't put over it. This allows the book to be very strong, but also to lay flay without much pressure.

The book documents several years of projects and collaborative work. Creuz and Skou write of their book:

The objective of this book is to present Swop Projects and some of the initiatives and projects we conducted within this framework. Apart from the material, documentation and concrete output, the book also includes three texts commissioned from authors to give an idea of the contexts in which the various projects operated. As a backdrop, we chose to include a text by writer and researcher Kolya Abramsky, which outlines the political and economical climate. We asked Emily Pethick, director of CASCO at the time, to contribute a text on how to build relationships around an art institution by collaborating with artists. We also asked freelance curator Katarina Stenbeck to contextualize the project from a contemporary art perspective.

To us, the work of developing alternative strategies and micro-models is a collective effort involving individuals from various groups and local communities. In order to understand local contexts and, not least, to be able to imagine alternative goals, we have operated within an international network. We started in Copenhagen and around Denmark. The project then brought us further afield to cities in Europe and beyond. We met people and visited local communities whose relationship to contemporary culture is based on ideas of co-operation, collectivism and social diversity in the local environment.

During the years we spent on Swop Projects we learned a lot, both personally and professionally, through meeting people who inspired us, presented us with ideas and who generously shared their knowledge and experience. We hope that we, through this book, can communicate the views of a political and artistic sphere as well as share some of the critical and diverse ideas that we have had the privilege to come across during the course of our work. We hope to inspire others and to arouse the readers’ curiosity in the same way as our own curiosity was kindled.