The Mountain’s Breath (De Adem van de Berg) ─ Sven Gerhardt
A publication documenting the vast subterranean labyrinth beneath Sint-Pietersberg, tracing centuries of extraction, inscription and historical memory.
The Mountain’s Breath (De Adem van de Berg) is a publication edited by Dutch graphic designer Sven Gerhardt. It offers a comprehensive and multifaceted record of the underground labyrinth beneath Sint-Pietersberg near Maastricht, in the south of the Netherlands. Formed within the limestone Caestert Plateau, the area was quarried by hand from the Middle Ages onward, eventually giving rise to an immense network of underground passages known as marl quarries.
Across their walls, countless inscriptions and drawings were left by quarry workers, visitors, soldiers, researchers, clergy and passers-by from the late Middle Ages to the present. These layered traces preserve intertwined histories above and below ground, including the discovery of the mosasaurus, memories of war and liberation, and the role of the caves as a refuge for national treasures such as Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. Around 1960, cement extraction in the Slavante area placed this cultural and historical heritage under threat. In response, photographer Jan Spee became one of those who sought to preserve it, producing thousands of photographs, maps and annotations that carefully documented the labyrinth. His archive, now held at the Historisch Centrum Limburg, extends across more than 21 metres of shelving.
Edited by Gerhardt, the book assembles a wealth of rare material in order to preserve and make accessible Spee’s visual and cultural-historical observations. Interweaving archival documents related to life in the quarries, it surveys a large number of images while providing context and cross-reference throughout.
Limited edition of 800 copies.
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Title: The Mountain’s Breath (De Adem van de Berg)
Artist: Sven Gerhardt
Publisher: The Eriskay Connection, 2025
Format: Softcover with flaps
Size: 232 × 337 mm
Pages: 416
Language: Dutch / English
Edition: First edition of 800 copies
ISBN: 9789493363038