Trading Places

Flash Art, octubre 2001

Barny Drabble

The 'Euskara' is synonymous with Basque regional identity. Existing in several forms it is an immediately recognizable font to be found everywhere: from matchboxes to street signs. It has been part of the fabric of the Basque life since de middle ages, and in recent months Sachs has been tracing the history of the font to its present day digital existence, as a piece of software under copyright to a Biarritz-based firm. Discovering that theowner planned to sell, the artist has persuaded them to let him make the sale the centre of a public event in Bilbao.