Black Ink: Black toast for gourmets.

For graffiti artist and illustrator Ata TOAST Bozaci (1974) black ink is far more than just colour: It is the elixir which brings life into his countless ideas on paper. That is why the Swiss now turns to the origins and presents a collection of selected sketches from the last two decades in his book BLACK INK.

In graffiti scene he is simply called TOAST, others know him by the name of Ata Bozaci, or as the founder and co-owner of the firm ATALIER in Bern, Switzerland. As versatile as the person is the work of the internationally renowned multi-talent, who lately designed the private apartment of Gunter Sachs in the legendary castle at Lake Wörth, Austria. Although his murals, illustrations, and advertisements are quite different, they all share the same origin: a sketch made with black ink on a simple sheet of paper. With his book BLACK INK Ata Bozaci allows for the very first time an insight into the creative developing process of his works.

Already the first pages clearly show that TOAST learned his handcraft to a large extent without a computer – contrary to most other young artists. Lines and areas join each other organically and the viewer will recognise with surprise that the black ink on white paper seems to have some kind of life of its own. TOAST’s characteristic reduction to the essential is emphasised by the renunciation of colour and lets the originally coloured works almost appear unknown. Ata Bozaci wants to break the usual habits and invites the reader to take another look at putative known works to discover the goodness of simplicity.