About Boekie Woekie

Boekie Woekie, books by artists, began paying rent for a tiny space in downtown Amsterdam on January 1st, 1986. It was then seen by its 6 founders as a shop for their own publications. After the first 5 years and some reshuffling of the group and with 3 of the founders left, Boekie Woekie began its second phase in a quite much bigger shop space around the corner and with a renewed concept resulting from the gained experience: the new shop opened for publications by others. There are now about 7000 titles - almost exclusively self-published or small press books. Those who run it - Henriëtte van Egten (Dutch), Rúna Thorkelsdóttir (Icelandic) and Jan Voss (German) have continued their personal artists’ careers and since years count the shop itself as a sculpture in progress they work on concertedly. In 2024 Boekie Woekie moved to its present address. The entirely self-financing enterprise is Europe’s, if not the world’s, venue for artists’ books the longest in existence which carries books regardless to their author's fame.