During his life, working mainly in his studios in Berlin, Germany and Nong Khai, Thailand, Albrecht Genin (Oldenburg 1945 - Berlin 2013) created an impressive oeuvre. Far from artistic trends, museums, art critics and galleries Genin was able to translate what he considered to be the absurd reality of life into a liveable fantasy.Right from the start Genin chose printed matter like Bibles, law books, maps, sheet music and ledgers to work on.When you consider all the techniques and materials Albrecht Genin used, it’s these works in Indian ink on old handwritten manuscripts, letters and documents, that especially stand out. If you think about it, they are essentially visualizations of the lives that emerged between the lines, of stories about a world on the other side of the ocean. It was a natural conclusion that this part of his work deserved to be highlighted in a book. [Jeroen Dijkstra]