COL 002         the earth museum         herman de vries         since 1978

Header image: from earth: seychelles © studio herman de vries,
Joana Schwender
Text: Mel Gooding

The earth museum in the house at Eschenau [now housed at the Musée Gassendi, Digne-les-Bains, CS] holds over seven thousand samples of earth, gathered by de vries or sent to him from all over the world. Begun in 1978, it is a unique collection; it is extensive and diverse, and although it has no scientific purpose it constitutes a compendium in which every type of earth (limestone, sandstone, peat volcanic, marl, ash, etc.) is represented, and which visibly demonstrates the endless variety, beauty and subtlety of the colours of earth. Each specimen is dried into a powder-like consistency, securely bagged, boxed and labelled with its date of collection and its place of origin; each represented in the earth catalogue by a rubbing made by hand on paper, identified by source, and carefully kept in identical Solander boxes.

herman de vries collecting earth on El Hierro, Canary Islands 
© susanne de vries

from earth: everywhere
© herman de vries, AkzoNobel Art Foundation

from earth: everywhere 
© studio herman de vries, Joana Schwender

from earth: tsum valley, nepal © herman de vries

from earth: gavdos © studio herman de vries, Joana Schwender

from earth: europe (proof), Georg Kolbe Museum 
© Enric Duch, Georg Kolbe Museum

from earth: león © studio herman de vries, Joana Schwender

from earth: van den oever tot krommenie 
© herman de vries, Léon Musca

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