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Sleeperhold Publications

Published April 02, 2023 Updated April 02, 2023

Sleeperhold Publications collaborative art playing cards.

Belgium Sleeperhold Publications Collaborative

Sleeperhold is a publication platform established with the intention of producing 10 outputs spanning different realms of the arts, after which it will cease. According to their website the 10 outputs to date are: (1) a photobook; (2) a poster set; (3) a pack of cards; (4) short stories; (5) ten vinyl records; (6) a ring.

This pack is the third on their list. Thirteen artists were each given four cards while a fourteenth was allocated the jokers. See the box

Sleeperhold Publications collaborative art playing cards, undated Sleeperhold Publications collaborative art playing cards, undated

Above: Sleeperhold Publications collaborative art playing cards. The pack is undated and provides no definitive information about the publisher. Possibly Belgian.

The result is a colourful mix of different styles of art and design. The artists were:

  • The Aces: Dennis Tyfus (Antwerp, Belgium)
  • The 2’s: Eric Yahnker (Los Angeles, USA)
  • The 3’s: Andrew Laumann (Baltimore, USA)
  • The 4’s: Daniel Eatock (London, United Kingdom)
  • The 5’s: Tessa Deceuninck (Ghent, Belgium)
  • The 6’s: Hawlin’ (Berlin, Germany)
  • The 7’s: Joshua Petherick (Melbourne, Australia)
  • The 8’s: Tara Kelton (New York, USA)
  • The 9’s: Arnaud Loumeau (Toulouse, France)
  • The 10’s: Grant Willing (New York, USA)
  • The Jacks: Bree Apperley (New York, USA)
  • The Queens: Åbäke (London, United Kingdom)
  • The Kings: Henridraws (Paris, France)
  • The Jokers: Ryan Gander & Europa (London, United Kingdom).
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By Peter Burnett

Member since July 27, 2022

I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.

Russian Playing Cards

Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.

Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.

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