Blexbolex

Blexbolex was born as Bernard Granger on May 26 1966 in Douai (northern France) and grew up in the Auvergne region. He studied silk-screen printing (sérigraphie) at the School of Fine Arts in Angoulême from 1984 to 1991. Prior to this he briefly studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Paris and did a year of military service in Berlin. In 1992, he started work as a printer, which allowed him to print and publish his first works the same year which exchanged hands in underground circles.
He worked as an illustrator for the press in 1994, in particular for Nova Magazine, the monthly magazine of Radio Nova. From 1996 to 2005, he worked at the Edition Cornélius in Paris, where he was first hired as a silk-screen printer. He subsequently became a designer and page-setter and ultimately worked as a co-director. Since 2005, he has been free-lancing as an illustrator and author of children’s literature, books for adults and comics. In 2011, he became co-editor of the »Neuer Leipziger Bilderbogen«.
Blexbolex’s style, characterized by the use of clear lines and shaded areas, has largely been inspired by the silk-screen printing process he used for many years in his work. American literature, as well as the cartoonist Hergé, have influenced his work to a large extent and his encounter with artist Richard McGuire was a turning point in his career. The conception and the writing of his work are based on cinema or comic book references. He favours the story and the semantic rather than the concept.
Blexbolex has received many prizes and distinctions for his work. Leute (L’Imagier des gens) was awarded the Golden Letter of the Leipzig Book Fair in the »Best Book Design of the World« competition in 2009; Seasons (Saisons) was the »Album of the Year« at the Val de Marne Départment (France) and was among the »10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2010« in the NY Times Book Review. Blexbolex currently lives and works as a freelance author and illustrator in Leipzig (Germany).

© internationales literaturfestival berlin

L’Œil Privé
Les Requins Marteaux
Paris, 2006

Die Flucht nach Abecederia
Büchergilde Gutenberg
Frankfurt a. M./Wien/Zürich, 2007
[Ü: Susanne Schardt]

Leute
Jacoby & Stuart
Berlin, 2008

Jahreszeiten
Jacoby & Stuart
Berlin, 2009

Hors-Zone
Cornélius
Paris [in Vorbereitung]