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“Why does an artist need a graphic designer when making art books? The artist him/herself can handle that.” The statement sounds fair. There are in fact many art books designed and edited by artists themselves. Yet, designers can bring in unexpected effect on the production.

 “Drop Sculpture” (Atlas) is a book on a project by artist Simon Starling, designed by Dutch design group COUP. Sterling's work involved conceptual, intricate process; first he produced complete replicas of 17th century bronze statues using the latest laser scanner, then he destroyed them only to reconstruct them later. The designer was required to present the whole complicated process.

 COUP's solution for this was quite simple yet bold. When you open the book, you realize the left side pages are printed upside-down. Readers naturally read the right side pages to the end then turn the whole book 180 decrees and read the other sides, coming back to the first page. On the spread which functions as the turning point of the book, it shows the photograph of the replicas being destroyed. Readers are constantly aware of the reproduction/reconstruction processes of the project.
Graphic designer is the shadowy artist who take essential part in the production of an artist's book. What do an artist think of the designer? A chaste wife who truly understands the artist's needs and create the best representation? Or a femme fatale who adds unnecessary twist just to cause misunderstandings? Is there a clear difference between the two? Hopefully, whatever happens to the artist and graphic designer during the production, they both tell each other at the end,“ I do need you, after all.” That is how I idealize the relationship, as a green graphic designer.


Published in the catalogue of the exhibition “LLOVE” in Tokyo 2010.
Image from “Drop Sculpture(Atlas)” by Simon Starling.
Translated by Futoshi Miyagi.
Special Thanks to COUP & Simon Starling for their inspiring work, Roxy van Beek for her generous help on language (although our translation cannot be online unfortunately).