I studied graphic design at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz in the 1970s, with a specialization in book design. Although the actual focus of the program was learning to design books for publishers, there was also room to do your own independent projects. Drawing, printmaking techniques like lithography, woodcuts and etching were just as much part of the curriculum as courses in the university’s own letterpress typesetting room and print shop. In particular, our professors Wilhelm Neufeld and Hans Peter Willberg encouraged students to take advantage of these possibilities. Neufeld used the workshops regularly; you could find him there making lithographs, for instance, that would turn up later in his Methusalem Presse editions. Neufeld’s students also included Heidi Hübner and Manfred Prochotta. While we were still at the university, we planned to edit broadsheets that would combine typography and original graphics. But we lacked the financial means to do it, so our project was stuck in the planning phase for a while. After finishing our studies, we were finally able to make our plans a reality. In 1979, together with Leonore Weissenburger, I bought the machines and lead fonts from Druckerei Schickel, a small letterpress printing shop in Lahnstein, and we rented their rooms. In early 1980  we founded FlugBlatt-Presse Mainz & Lahnstein and started to print broadsheets, which we called FlugBlätter and which gave our enterprise its name. In the end, by 1984, we had produced 67 FlugBlätter. In the meantime, though, the focus of FlugBlatt-Presse had shifted.  Heidi and Manfred were now mainly making one-of-a-kind works, while I was starting to print books in small editions.

My first books were made exclusively with what was available in the Lahnstein workshop. For the texts I used the available lead types; for the images, I mainly used my own woodcuts or linocuts, and sometimes zinc plates – plates I had either found or had made for me – but I also experimented with other printing blocks, for instance by printing with bird feathers and dried plants. Later on I added the computer as a tool, which expanded my options. Polymer plates started to play an important role. Forms and images created on the computer could
now be printed using the letterpress process. Since 2001, Ines von Ketelhodt and I have shared the luxury of living and working in the same place, Flörsheim am Main, where we have set up a joint workshop. Not much has changed in terms of marketing – we still have to market most of our work ourselves. There are only a few dealers
and galleries who focus on this very specialized area. While it is labor-intensive to present work at fairs and exhibitions, you do meet interesting people there – colleagues, curators, librarians and collectors. In the 1980s, the scene was much smaller than it is today. We regularly met up at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the fall, where
we knew almost everyone within our small specialized segment. That was also where we had our first international encounters. For me, the American contacts were especially important – It was not until 2000 that I first traveled to the United States with Ines to present our project Zweite Enzyklopädie von Tlön , which
we had been working on since 1997. Most of our contacts from that time have held strong, and we have made friends and found supporters in the United States. For example the Codex Bookfair, which takes place every other year at the San Francisco Bay Area since 2007, has become an important meeting point for artists, curators and collectors from all over the world.

1986   FlugBlatt-Presse at Galerie Druck & Buch, Tübingen
1990   Ten years FlugBlatt-Presse at Gutenberg-Museum, Mainz
1990   Rheinbuch Exhibition at Mittelrhein-Museum, Koblenz
1993   Rheinbuch Exhibition at Rathaus Mainz
1995   schriftzeichen – Museum for Applied Art, Frankfurt
1994   Rheinbuch Exhibition at Rheinische Landesbibliothek, Speyer
1997   Leseprobe. With Karin Innerling at Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt
2000  Twenty years FlugBlatt-Presse at Klingspor Museum, Offenbach
2001   Zweite Enzyklopädie von Tlön at Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
2004  Zweite Enzyklopädie von Tlön at Museum for Applied Art, Frankfurt
2007  Zweite Enzyklopädie von Tlön at Gutenberg-Museum, Mainz
2008  Tweede encyclopedie van Tlön at Museum Meermanno, The Hague
2008  Bücher Bilder und Figuren, with Ines von Ketelhodt, Kunstforum Mainturm, Flörsheim
2010   Artists' books in Germany and Georgia, Trois Gallery, Savannah
2011   MCBA Prize 2011 Finalists, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis (USA)
2012   Diamond Leaves – Brilliant Artist Books from around the World, CAFA Art Museum, Peking.
2014   Artists’ books,  Museum for Contemporary Art, Benediktinerstift Admont.
2014   Eloge de la rareté, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
2016   Reading with the Senses, LUCAD, Cambridge
2016   The Authority of the Book, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Boone
2016   Historic Futures: Artists Reinvent the Book, Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco
2017   buchstäblich Buch, Artists' Books by Peter Malutzki, Klingspor-Museum Offenbach

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Universitätsbibliothek Basel
University of California, Berkeley
Kunstbibliothek Berlin
Staatsbibliothek Berlin
Indiana University Bloomington

Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

Bowdoin College, Brunswick
Harvard University, Cambridge
University of Chicago
Huis van het boek, Den Haag
University of Alberta, Edmonton
Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt
Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek, Hannover
Trinity College Hartford
Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts Johannesburg
Rheinische Landesbibliothek Koblenz
Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek Köln
Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum Leipzig
Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
V&A National Art Library London
Tate Library and Archive London
Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg
Gutenberg Museum Mainz
Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
Wesleyan University Middletown
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München
Universitätsbibliothek München
Yale University New Haven
University of Delaware Newark
Public Library New York City
Smith College Northampton
Carleton College Northfield
Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg
Mills College Oakland
Klingspor Museum Offenbach
Bibliothèque nationale de France Paris
University of the Arts Philadelphia
University of Pittsburgh
Reed College Portland
Princeton University
Rochester Institute of Technology
Bibliothèque Municipale Saint-Quentin
University of California Santa Barbara
University of Washington Seattle
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
Bibliotheca Librorum apud Artificem Sydney
Library of Congress Washington
Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek Weimar
Wellesley College Wellesley
Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien
MAK Wien
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Wien
Wienbibliothek im Rathaus Wien
Hochschul- und Landesbibliothek Wiesbaden
Williams College Williamstown
Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel

1987   Awarded by Stiftung Buchkunst for H. C. Artmann, Der Aeronautische Sindtbart

1988   Awarded by Stiftung Buchkunst for kurt schwitters geht auf 101 zu

1989  V. O. Stomps-Prize by the city of Mainz

1989   Awarded by Stiftung Buchkunst for Leporello 1 + 2

1989  Silver medal by IBA Leipzig for H. C. Artmann, Der Aeronautische Sindtbart
1990   Awarded by Stiftung Buchkunst for Günter Eich, Unter Wasser
1992   Walter-Tiemann Prize by Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
1995   Awarded by Stiftung Buchkunst for Von Anton bis Zeppelin
2000  Walter-Tiemann Prize by Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig

2011   Minnesota Center for Book Arts, MCBA Prize 2011 Finalist