Credits Curators: Ian Albinson, Andrew Blauvelt, Jeremy Leslie, Ellen ...
Colophon
The galleries in T. B. Walker’s home, circa 1904
Walker Insights lecture series poster, 2011
Walker Art Center Collective Imagination campaign, 2009
Early book mockup for this catalogue featuring a trimmed down 2011 Insights poster as the dust jacket
Moon
Sun
Bits and Pieces The design of this book is the culmination of a text-image strategy first employed in a campaign created to promote an exhibition of the Walker Art Center’s painting collection (2009). Inspired by museum founder T. B. Walker’s own salon-style hangings in his nineteenth-century mansion and our painting storage facility, this display style allows for a dense presentation of material and unexpected juxtapositions. Although dominated by its strong visual approach, the design also integrates textual material throughout its composition. In 2010, this layout strategy was used in a poster to celebrate the Walker’s twenty-five-year collaboration with the AIGA on the Insights design lecture series. For this catalogue, the strategy was elaborated and extended. Previously utilized in the design of a single poster or billboard, the layout approach was used to create more than one hundred pages of this 224-page publication. Small texts that we call bits are incorporated throughout the catalogue and represent a combination of original writing, aggregated authorship, and excerpted quotations. In this way, the design weaves together the voices of curators, “crowds,” and artists with images of works found in the show and beyond, including the supplemental and the tangential. This premodern style of arrangement, which attempts to impose an order and sensibility on an often incoherent assemblage of objects, speaks to our contemporary condition of information overload in an increasingly fragmented search-based culture. —AB
Helvetia Vulgaris This book is set in Union, a typeface by Radim Pesko: “Union derives from the two most commonly used typefaces on PC and Mac platforms: Arial and Helvetica. Essentially, Union is a synthesis of these typefaces; its contours have been adjusted to retain the flexibility characteristic of both fonts. Union is intended for situations where Helvetica seems too sophisticated and Arial too vulgar, or vice versa.” —EB
Credits Curators: Ian Albinson, Andrew Blauvelt, Jeremy Leslie, Ellen Lupton, and Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio Curatorial Assistance: Camille Washington Catalogue Concept: Andrew Blauvelt and Emmet Byrne Catalogue Design Direction: Emmet Byrne Catalogue Designer: Michael Aberman Exhibition Design and Graphics: Andrew Blauvelt, Dylan Cole, and Matthew Rezac (Walker Art Center); and Project Projects (Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum) Catalogue Editors: Andrew Blauvelt, Pamela Johnson, Ellen Lupton, and Kathleen McLean Indexing: Ellen Lupton and Pamela Johnson Contributing Writers: Åbäke, Ian Albinson, Peter Bil’ak, Andrew Blauvelt (AB), Emmet Byrne (EB), Rob Giampietro, James Goggin, Peter Hall, Steven Heller, Jessica Karle Heltzel, Jeremy Leslie, Ellen Lupton (EL), Ben Radatz, Michael Rock, Dmitri Siegel, Alexander Ulloa, Daniel van der Velden, Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio, and Lorraine Wild Picture Researchers: Andrew Blauvelt, Emmet Byrne, Dylan Cole, Amanda Kesner, Jackie Killian, Ellen Lupton, and Camille Washington Photographer: Cameron Wittig Title Image Stills: Ian Albinson Image Preparation and Correction: Greg Beckel Image Preparation Assistance: Michael Aberman, Anton Pearson, and Brian Walbergh Publication Project Managers: Andrew Blauvelt, Emmet Byrne, and Dylan Cole Wiki Developer: Eric Price Printer: Shapco Printing, Inc. (Avery Group) Paper Manufacturer: French Paper Company Publisher: Walker Art Center Distributor: D.A.P., Distributed Art Publishers / artbook.com
Branch
Radim Pesko Union typeface specimen Courtesy the artist
Rabble-Rousers A salon-style hanging refers to an installation of artworks—typically photographs and paintings—hung close together on the wall from floor to ceiling. Its roots lie in the Paris salons first held in 1674 as a way of presenting the work of recent graduates of the École des Beaux-Arts, the royally sanctioned art school. The density of the hanging accommodated as many works as possible—large pieces placed high and smaller works below, with some tipped for better viewing. In 1737, the salon was opened to the public. Before that time, the judgment and discernment of art was the function of an institutional system of royal patronage. This democratizing development encouraged not only the mingling of different social classes who now shared the same event, but also propagated new opinions—beyond those of the court—about the art on display. Using the popular form of pamphleteering, ordinary people could write, print, and distribute their own criticism about the works on display and those who sanctioned it. Not surprisingly, the elite would often view these remarks as those of the uneducated and unenlightened masses— the noise of the crowd or rabble. Of course, the term “rabble” could have been applied to both the amassed crowds and the assembled jumble of works on view. The opening up of art to the democratizing impulses of the time would not only irrevocably alter the cultural relationship between the elite and the masses, but also presaged the social and political revolutions of the late eighteenth century. —AB See Thomas Crow, Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris, 1987
Work Safely sign at French Paper Mill
French Paper Mill, 2011 Photo: Emmet Byrne
French Paper Company This book is printed on French Paper’s Dur-o-tone Newsprint Extra White 50# text. Established in 1871 and located in the small town of Niles, Michigan, French Paper is a sixth-generation, family-owned American company. Known for its distinct, designer-friendly paper lines, French also makes small-run custom sheets that incorporate additives into its pulp like shredded dollar bills, grass clippings, and even insect parts. French uses no petroleum in the manufacturing of its papers, and instead generates its own clean, renewable energy by way of hydroelectric generators installed on-site. To prove that the water going out of the French Paper mill was cleaner than the water coming in from the St. Joe river, starting in 1944 Chairman “Big Ed” French would drink a cup of mill waste water each day from a crusty tin cup. “Big Ed” is now 173 years old and glows in the dark. He credits his longevity and radiant good health to the “nutrients” in the mill water. French was also an early pioneer of recycled, 100 percent postconsumer, and other environmentally friendly sheets. For this catalogue, we requested that French cut the paper along the short edge of the grain (opposite the usual direction) in order to allow the pages to have more bend, giving us the desired flop effect. Åbäke’s parasite publication I Am Still Alive #21, on pages 145–160, is the only signature cut on the long edge of the grain. —EB
Earth’s core
Shapco Printing This catalogue was produced by Shapco Printing, Inc.— one of the Walker’s printing partners—using inks that cure immediately when exposed to ultraviolet light. This process allows the ink to sit on the surface of the paper, rather than soak in, resulting in better quality reproductions and eliminating the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) typically emitted during printing, which makes the process more environmentally friendly. Shapco was founded in 1976 by three brothers (two accountants and a lawyer), who gave up their day jobs to form a printing company focused on quality and craftsmanship. Today, Shapco specializes in high-quality books, catalogues, and magazines, particularly for the cultural sector. Shapco produced this smythe-sewn catalogue in sixteen-page signatures with thirty press checks, thirty hours of print production, eighty pounds of ink, and sixty hours of binding. Based in downtown Minneapolis’ warehouse district on the site of a former linoleum tile company, Shapco now sits comfortably in the shadow of the new Minnesota Twins stadium and offers free game-day parking to all of its customers, a perk that we frequently use. —EB Night School students with Joe Avery of Shapco at the final press check for Graphic Design: Now in Production
224
The galleries in T. B. Walker’s home, circa 1904
Walker Insights lecture series poster, 2011
Walker Art Center Collective Imagination campaign, 2009
Early book mockup for this catalogue featuring a trimmed down 2011 Insights poster as the dust jacket
Moon
Sun
Bits and Pieces The design of this book is the culmination of a text-image strategy first employed in a campaign created to promote an exhibition of the Walker Art Center’s painting collection (2009). Inspired by museum founder T. B. Walker’s own salon-style hangings in his nineteenth-century mansion and our painting storage facility, this display style allows for a dense presentation of material and unexpected juxtapositions. Although dominated by its strong visual approach, the design also integrates textual material throughout its composition. In 2010, this layout strategy was used in a poster to celebrate the Walker’s twenty-five-year collaboration with the AIGA on the Insights design lecture series. For this catalogue, the strategy was elaborated and extended. Previously utilized in the design of a single poster or billboard, the layout approach was used to create more than one hundred pages of this 224-page publication. Small texts that we call bits are incorporated throughout the catalogue and represent a combination of original writing, aggregated authorship, and excerpted quotations. In this way, the design weaves together the voices of curators, “crowds,” and artists with images of works found in the show and beyond, including the supplemental and the tangential. This premodern style of arrangement, which attempts to impose an order and sensibility on an often incoherent assemblage of objects, speaks to our contemporary condition of information overload in an increasingly fragmented search-based culture. —AB
Helvetia Vulgaris This book is set in Union, a typeface by Radim Pesko: “Union derives from the two most commonly used typefaces on PC and Mac platforms: Arial and Helvetica. Essentially, Union is a synthesis of these typefaces; its contours have been adjusted to retain the flexibility characteristic of both fonts. Union is intended for situations where Helvetica seems too sophisticated and Arial too vulgar, or vice versa.” —EB
Credits Curators: Ian Albinson, Andrew Blauvelt, Jeremy Leslie, Ellen Lupton, and Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio Curatorial Assistance: Camille Washington Catalogue Concept: Andrew Blauvelt and Emmet Byrne Catalogue Design Direction: Emmet Byrne Catalogue Designer: Michael Aberman Exhibition Design and Graphics: Andrew Blauvelt, Dylan Cole, and Matthew Rezac (Walker Art Center); and Project Projects (Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum) Catalogue Editors: Andrew Blauvelt, Pamela Johnson, Ellen Lupton, and Kathleen McLean Indexing: Ellen Lupton and Pamela Johnson Contributing Writers: Åbäke, Ian Albinson, Peter Bil’ak, Andrew Blauvelt (AB), Emmet Byrne (EB), Rob Giampietro, James Goggin, Peter Hall, Steven Heller, Jessica Karle Heltzel, Jeremy Leslie, Ellen Lupton (EL), Ben Radatz, Michael Rock, Dmitri Siegel, Alexander Ulloa, Daniel van der Velden, Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio, and Lorraine Wild Picture Researchers: Andrew Blauvelt, Emmet Byrne, Dylan Cole, Amanda Kesner, Jackie Killian, Ellen Lupton, and Camille Washington Photographer: Cameron Wittig Title Image Stills: Ian Albinson Image Preparation and Correction: Greg Beckel Image Preparation Assistance: Michael Aberman, Anton Pearson, and Brian Walbergh Publication Project Managers: Andrew Blauvelt, Emmet Byrne, and Dylan Cole Wiki Developer: Eric Price Printer: Shapco Printing, Inc. (Avery Group) Paper Manufacturer: French Paper Company Publisher: Walker Art Center Distributor: D.A.P., Distributed Art Publishers / artbook.com
Branch
Radim Pesko Union typeface specimen Courtesy the artist
Rabble-Rousers A salon-style hanging refers to an installation of artworks—typically photographs and paintings—hung close together on the wall from floor to ceiling. Its roots lie in the Paris salons first held in 1674 as a way of presenting the work of recent graduates of the École des Beaux-Arts, the royally sanctioned art school. The density of the hanging accommodated as many works as possible—large pieces placed high and smaller works below, with some tipped for better viewing. In 1737, the salon was opened to the public. Before that time, the judgment and discernment of art was the function of an institutional system of royal patronage. This democratizing development encouraged not only the mingling of different social classes who now shared the same event, but also propagated new opinions—beyond those of the court—about the art on display. Using the popular form of pamphleteering, ordinary people could write, print, and distribute their own criticism about the works on display and those who sanctioned it. Not surprisingly, the elite would often view these remarks as those of the uneducated and unenlightened masses— the noise of the crowd or rabble. Of course, the term “rabble” could have been applied to both the amassed crowds and the assembled jumble of works on view. The opening up of art to the democratizing impulses of the time would not only irrevocably alter the cultural relationship between the elite and the masses, but also presaged the social and political revolutions of the late eighteenth century. —AB See Thomas Crow, Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris, 1987
Work Safely sign at French Paper Mill
French Paper Mill, 2011 Photo: Emmet Byrne
French Paper Company This book is printed on French Paper’s Dur-o-tone Newsprint Extra White 50# text. Established in 1871 and located in the small town of Niles, Michigan, French Paper is a sixth-generation, family-owned American company. Known for its distinct, designer-friendly paper lines, French also makes small-run custom sheets that incorporate additives into its pulp like shredded dollar bills, grass clippings, and even insect parts. French uses no petroleum in the manufacturing of its papers, and instead generates its own clean, renewable energy by way of hydroelectric generators installed on-site. To prove that the water going out of the French Paper mill was cleaner than the water coming in from the St. Joe river, starting in 1944 Chairman “Big Ed” French would drink a cup of mill waste water each day from a crusty tin cup. “Big Ed” is now 173 years old and glows in the dark. He credits his longevity and radiant good health to the “nutrients” in the mill water. French was also an early pioneer of recycled, 100 percent postconsumer, and other environmentally friendly sheets. For this catalogue, we requested that French cut the paper along the short edge of the grain (opposite the usual direction) in order to allow the pages to have more bend, giving us the desired flop effect. Åbäke’s parasite publication I Am Still Alive #21, on pages 145–160, is the only signature cut on the long edge of the grain. —EB
Earth’s core
Shapco Printing This catalogue was produced by Shapco Printing, Inc.— one of the Walker’s printing partners—using inks that cure immediately when exposed to ultraviolet light. This process allows the ink to sit on the surface of the paper, rather than soak in, resulting in better quality reproductions and eliminating the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) typically emitted during printing, which makes the process more environmentally friendly. Shapco was founded in 1976 by three brothers (two accountants and a lawyer), who gave up their day jobs to form a printing company focused on quality and craftsmanship. Today, Shapco specializes in high-quality books, catalogues, and magazines, particularly for the cultural sector. Shapco produced this smythe-sewn catalogue in sixteen-page signatures with thirty press checks, thirty hours of print production, eighty pounds of ink, and sixty hours of binding. Based in downtown Minneapolis’ warehouse district on the site of a former linoleum tile company, Shapco now sits comfortably in the shadow of the new Minnesota Twins stadium and offers free game-day parking to all of its customers, a perk that we frequently use. —EB Night School students with Joe Avery of Shapco at the final press check for Graphic Design: Now in Production
224
