When Swiss artist Philip Royce Earnhart stepped onto the stage at the Arty Show Biel/Bienne 2025 and opened a beautifully bound art book for the audience, every detail in that object — the weight of the paper, the depth of the printed colors, the texture of the grey cover, the feel of the hand-sewn black thread along the spine — quietly told a story that began thousands of miles away in Shanghai. We had the privilege of being part of making that object.
This is the story of how Words Breathe came to life.
The Artist and the Project
Philip Royce Earnhart is a Swiss painter based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, known for his large-format, emotionally charged canvases. His paintings are bold and layered — the kind of work where you can feel the physicality of oil paint even in a photograph.
In late 2024, Earnhart was invited by Swatch to participate in the prestigious in residence @ Swatch Art Peace Hotel program in Shanghai. He took up residency at 23 East Nanjing Road (Bund 19) — one of the most storied creative addresses in China — and spent months producing a series of paintings that would form the visual core of a collaborative art book.
The book, Words Breathe, was created in partnership with Austrian writer Roland Schwarz. Its subject: people whose lives were fundamentally transformed by a single book. Philip painted their stories; Roland wrote them. The result was a deeply human project about the power of reading — and they wanted the printed object itself to honor that depth.
You can learn more about the project on the Swatch Art Peace Hotel’s feature page.
How We Met: From a Phone Call to a Creative Partnership
Our relationship with Philip began with a phone call.
In November 2024, Philip reached out to our office to discuss a printing quote for the book. Our representative Susan Han responded the same day with a detailed quotation. Philip’s reply set the tone for everything that followed: “Thank you so much. This will help me to discuss the costs with Swatch.”
What followed was a collaboration built on trust, personal attention, and a shared commitment to getting every detail right.
In December 2024, Philip reached out again to request a physical dummy book — a hand-crafted mock-up that would let him feel the proportions, the paper weight, and the binding before committing to a full print run. We produced the dummy and delivered it to his studio at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel within the agreed timeline.
In January 2025, Susan personally accompanied Philip on a visit to our printing facility, walking him through the offset printing presses, the paper stocks, and the bindery. But the real turning point came when Philip stood at the press and watched his own oil paintings being printed in real time. As the sheets came off the machine, he studied the colors closely and communicated his requirements directly — evaluating how the ink sat on the uncoated paper, calling out specific tonal adjustments, pushing for the exact depth and vibrancy his originals carried. Our team responded on the spot, calibrating until the result matched his vision. It was the kind of exchange that simply cannot happen over email. Afterward, Philip sent a message that stayed with us: “So kind of you to take me to the printer yesterday.”
Seeing his paintings come to life on paper — and having his color input honored in real time — gave Philip the confidence to commit to the full print run, and gave us a precise, shared understanding of the standard we were held to.
The Print Challenge: Reproducing Oil Paintings on the Page
Anyone who has worked in fine art reproduction knows the core tension: oil paintings have luminosity, texture, and depth that can easily flatten and die on a printed page. Earnhart’s canvases — rich with saturated color, visible brushwork, and expressive energy — presented exactly this challenge.
Philip was not looking for a printer who would simply “run the files.” He was looking for a partner who cared as much about the final result as he did. From his very first message, it was clear that he approached printing with the same precision and intentionality he brings to his studio practice.
Our Process: Proofing Before Committing
Before a single copy of the final book was printed, we ran a rigorous sampling and proofing process in three stages.
Stage 1 — Physical Paper Sampling
Early in the collaboration — while Philip was still in residence at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel — we presented him with paper samples across different weights and finishes. After careful evaluation, he gravitated toward an uncoated white paper that captured the matte, textural quality of his original canvases without introducing an artificial sheen. He had originally requested 90gsm; we sourced the closest available equivalent at 100gsm uncoated — the same tactile feel as the dummy we had made for him months earlier.
Stage 2 — Offset Press Proofs
To confirm that the final printed pages would faithfully reproduce the vibrancy of his oil paintings, we ran offset press proofs on our production machines — not digital proofs, but actual press sheets under real production conditions. Philip carefully selected four paintings that represented the full spectrum of his palette: warm earth tones, vivid blues and greens, high-contrast figure work, and the delicate butterfly imagery central to the Words Breathe series.
We printed these four images across three different paper stocks simultaneously, producing true side-by-side comparisons that let Philip evaluate exactly how each surface interacted with the inks. After reviewing the results carefully, he selected the paper that best honored the depth and richness of his originals.
This kind of hands-on proofing is exactly how fine art printing should work. It’s not about guessing — it’s about seeing, comparing, and confirming before the full press run begins.
Stage 3 — Digital PDF Proofing
In early May 2025, Philip sent us a 252MB folder of print-ready single-page PDFs. Our designer reviewed every spread for binding bleed, image placement, and page sequencing, then turned around a complete PDF proof within 24 hours, flagging areas where artwork extended into the binding edge and confirming final page dimensions (254 × 356mm, 70 interior pages).
Philip’s feedback was precise and practical: the cover emboss was approved immediately; one interior page required a layout correction (the opening spread needed to begin on the right-hand side, as is conventional for a left-bound book). We updated the files and resubmitted the same day, along with a revised quotation that now included air freight costs.
The Specifications: Every Detail Mattered
The final book was produced to the following specifications:
- Final size: 254 × 356mm (approximately 10″ × 14″)
- Interior: 70 pages (70 sheets), 100gsm uncoated off-white paper
- Cover: 270gsm grey-colored board, scored at 20mm from the left edge for a clean opening
- Cover treatment: Embossed
- Binding: Traditional Chinese thread-sewn binding, black thread
- Shipping: Air freight, delivered directly to Philip’s studio in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
The choice of traditional Chinese thread-sewn binding was deliberate and conceptual. This ancient bookbinding technique — in which folded signatures are sewn together with visible thread along the spine — is a distinctly Chinese craft. By using it for a book created in Shanghai, printed in China, and exhibited in Switzerland, Philip and his collaborators embedded a quiet cultural narrative into the physical object itself. The binding doesn’t just hold the pages together; it connects the book to the place where it was born.
The Result: A Packed Gallery in Switzerland
Philip received the finished books by air freight and was delighted. The colors on the page held up beautifully against the large-format originals hanging on the gallery walls beside them at the Arty Show Biel/Bienne 2025 — which, for any fine art printer, is the ultimate test.
The launch event drew a packed audience of collectors, art enthusiasts, and Swatch guests. Philip read from the book on stage, surrounded by his paintings. Words Breathe became both a collectible art object and a way for visitors to carry the experience home.
What This Project Taught Us
Projects like Words Breathe are why we do this work. When an artist trusts us with something deeply personal — work created during a months-long residency in Shanghai, destined for a gallery stage in Switzerland — we take that seriously.
What made this collaboration work was not just technical skill. It was the willingness to invest time before the press ever ran: answering the initial inquiry carefully, producing a dummy, running real press proofs on multiple stocks, and turning around PDF corrections within hours. Trust is built slowly and practically, through small gestures and commitments followed through.
Great printing is invisible. When it works, no one talks about the paper or the ink — they just feel that the book is right. That’s what we were going for with Philip Earnhart. By all accounts, we got there.
Planning a fine art book, artist monograph, or limited-edition publication? We’d love to talk.
