Last letters from Denmark: Danes write to Devon artist as postal service ends | art

Some describe the joy of receiving letters from far away, others talk of the discipline of sitting down to carefully arrange their thoughts into a letter.

One writer tells of finding a poignant cache of letters after the death of a parent, while another shared a map of where mailboxes were located in her city.

A British artist has collected some of the last letters sent through the 400-year-old Danish postal system, which delivered its final letters on December 30.

PostNord cited the “increasing digitization” of society and said it would continue to deliver packages, but its decision to stop delivering letters made headlines around the world.

Paper art specialist Gillian Taylor asked people to send a letter from Denmark to a post box in Exeter, Devon, just before the service closed, and in the next few months she will put together a piece of art to celebrate them.

“PostNord ending letter delivery and removing mailboxes felt like such a significant moment that I wanted to celebrate it by creating some artwork,” Taylor said.

She invited people to send a long letter, a short greeting, a card, or even just an addressed envelope without a message. I was surprised and thrilled at the great care so many clearly took.

“Some have included old cut-outs that people used to collect and mail. Some have drawn pictures or made collages. Many have expressed sadness over the end of the postal service and the removal of mailboxes,” Taylor said.

One writer included a map identifying the last three mailboxes in her city. “She talks about being a kid on holiday — the process of finding the right postcard to send, thinking about what to write, finding the post office to buy a stamp and sending the card,” Taylor said.

“It was most exciting to receive mail, especially mail from abroad with various stamps and postmarks. I feel it is a shame that future generations will never be able to send or receive a handwritten card or letter,” the writer told Taylor.

Another writer described the joy of receiving letters from her mother’s sister in Norway. “Before she could read, she recognized her aunt’s handwriting when a letter arrived,” Taylor said.

“The family gathered around the kitchen table (she uses the now well-known Danish word ‘hygge’) with the smell of coffee as her mother read the letter to the family. The mother’s voice was warm and her Norwegian accent was clear. Now, the author reflects on how much her mother misses her sister and her country.

The author herself recalls leaving her childhood home, where the family had lived for 60 years, and finding carefully preserved letters from her mother to her father. She doesn’t read it because she feels it should remain private.

A 67-year-old woman described receiving thousands of letters throughout her life. Taylor said: “She talks about looking after the postman with longing when she was a teenager. She had pen pals all over the world and kept in touch with some of them throughout her life. She is writing to a prisoner in America who has been sentenced to life in prison.”

Another writer talked about the Danish writer and philosopher Wille Sorensen, who created a short story called The Lost Letters in which people stopped writing letters.

“Now it’s a reality,” Taylor said. “The last handwritten letter the writer received was several years ago from an old school friend. The post office and all the mailboxes near her are now gone.”

Taylor’s previous works have included collages of small envelopes made from love letters from World War II and large installations of paper poppies.

The Danish letters and envelopes will be used in a new artwork called Med Venlig Hilsen (Kind Regards), which Taylor hopes to display in the UK and Denmark.