Bern Art Prints: The Stories Behind 4 Bern Motifs

There is one building in Bern I simply cannot walk past. I stop every single time, even when I’m late.

That building is Casino Bern, and it’s one of four Bern motifs I’ve carved as linocuts. This is where each of them comes from. And if you’re looking for a gift from Bern that didn’t come off a souvenir rack, the last part is about how one of these Bern art prints ends up on your wall, or someone else’s.

Why Casino Bern?

I can’t quite name it. Maybe the symmetry. Maybe the way the facade stands so calmly while everyone rushes across the square below.

A few facts, because I looked them up myself: the Casino stands at Casinoplatz 1 (the old address was Herrengasse 25). It was built between 1906 and 1908 and opened in 1909. Today it’s mainly a concert hall, and the Bern Symphony Orchestra plays most of its concerts there (more on Wikipedia, in German).

For a linocut printmaker, a facade like that is both a gift and a trap. A gift, because geometry is my thing. I’ve loved technical drawing since school: straight lines, axes, repetition. A trap, because every window has to line up. You can’t undo a cut. If a window goes crooked, it stays crooked.

There’s no grey in a linocut, only ink or paper. So every surface and every shadow has to come from lines set closer together or further apart. That’s the work you don’t see in the finished print, but you feel it.

See the Casino Bern original

Above Bern: a view from a hotel terrace

The second motif is called “Above Bern”. It started with a photo I took on the terrace of Hotel Schweizerhof.

From up there, Bern looks different. You’re no longer down in the lanes, you’re looking out over the rooftops. That’s the feeling I wanted to get into the lino: standing just above the city for a moment and seeing it from the outside.

The photo became a drawing, and the drawing became a mirrored design on the plate. I wrote up the whole process separately: how I turn photos into linocuts.

Above Bern in the shop

The Domes: a place under the city

“The Domes” is a space I’m very fond of. It’s a club in Bern, underground. That’s all I’ll say; it’s allowed to stay a bit of a secret.

What fascinates me there are the faces. Very interesting, almost enchanting faces. And the atmosphere of the room, which I simply love.

It’s a space you only know if you go down the stairs, and I still wanted it on paper. That’s the appeal of this motif for me: making something hidden in Bern visible without giving all of it away.

The Domes in the shop

The Fountain: a monster that eats children

And then there’s “The Fountain”. It’s the Kindlifresserbrunnen, the Child Eater Fountain, and yes, the figure on top of the column really is eating a child.

I’ll admit that’s exactly what hooked me. A charming bit of history right in the old town, and at the same time creepy enough that you look twice every time you pass. In the print, the figure stands on its column in rays of carved light.

I tell the full story of the fountain here: The Fountain and Bern’s fountain figures. The original is here: The Fountain.

A gift from Bern: what you actually get

If you want to give someone a piece of Bern that’s more than a fridge magnet, these prints are my honest recommendation. I’m biased, obviously. But I know how many hours go into every plate.

Here’s what it looks like in practice:

1. Originals: printed by hand with a bamboo baren, no press involved. Signed and numbered in pencil, edition of 30 per motif, with a certificate of authenticity.
2. Shipping: from Bern within 14 days, with a postcard included. Switzerland only, CHF 12, free from CHF 75.
3. Small prints: 11.5×16 cm, signed and dated. A good smaller Christmas present, or a Bern souvenir for someone who has moved away.

Because every sheet is pulled by hand, one at a time, no two are identical. The small differences are proof that no machine was involved. And CHF 5 from every original goes to the Bern association übrig.

One tip from experience: if it needs to arrive before Christmas, don’t order on 20 December. Fourteen days is a maximum, not a promise of tomorrow.

If one of the four feels right, you’ll find them all under all originals. And if you’re wondering what “edition of 30” actually means: original, edition and signature explained.