Whitney Museum of American Art
256 pages | 210 images
American Alliance of Museums, Honorable Mention, Museum Publications Design Competition, 2013
This catalogue accompanied a retrospective exhibition for the artist Richard Artschwager. Artschwager experimented with materials such as Formica, cowhide, rubberized horsehair and Celotex—a ceiling tile material. He attempted to make sculpture two-dimensional and the picture plane three-dimensional. The book also plays with visual perception. At first glance it appears to be a solid object due to the black edges and flush-trimmed covers. The covers simulate a sculpture that has a Celotex surface. Together with the curator and production manager, I spent multiple meetings in the storage facility looking closely at the sculpture and brainstorming how to create a tactile facsimile using printing techniques. Inside, the plates are thoughtfully sequenced within the four essays, with bursts of large details displaying the splendor of Artschwager’s amusing and alluring materials. This book received awards from the American Alliance of Museums and The Association of Art Museum Curators.
