The Reve tapes of Boudewijn Büch

In 1983 the author Boudewijn Büch (1948–2002) interviewed his literary hero Gerard Reve for the daily newspaper Het Parool.  Reve made some insulting and politically incorrect statements, which caused a stir after the interview appeared in print. Het Parool apologized for having published it and Büch declared that Reve’s opinions were not his. Shortly afterwards he deposited the tapes with the unabridged interview in Amsterdam University Library. They were packed in a sealed parcel, which bears an inscription saying that it may only be opened with the permission of Büch.

Exhibiting the parcel with the Reve tapes of Boudewijn Büch is showing packaging with unknown contents. It raises the question what information exactly is conveyed by putting the parcel in a show case in an exhibition. It even raises the question what benefit there is to keeping the parcel at all... 

Written by: Klaas van der Hoek, Curator at Special Collections, University of Amsterdam