n°51 — Lawrence Weiner: We Are Ships at Sea, Not Dicks On a Pond. Author: Joris Kritis with interviews with Nora Turato & Linda van Deursen

February 2025

Lawrence Weiner’s use of graphic design has always been of fascination for graphic designers. ‘What makes Weiner’s work seductive to graphic designers is his resolutely non-apologetic method of displaying words without need for any explanation.’* But in this text a comparative analysis is made of different voices about Weiner’s use of graphics & typography.

Next to a speculative history of Weiner’s formal language, two interviews—with graphic designer Linda Van Deursen and artist Nora Turato—pay attention to Weiner’s enduring legacy.

*— Russel Holmes, “The Work Must Be Read”, Eye Magazine, Autumn, 1998, https://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/the-work-must-be-read.

n°28 — The conference: a format. Authors: Manon Bruet, Area of Work

Author: Manon Bruet
3D: Area Of Work
28 pages, 21 × 29,7 cm, CMYK
13th January 2021
ISBN: 979-10-95991-18-2
ISSN: 2558-2062

There are an increasing number of spaces in the field of Graphic Design where work can be promoted. Intermediary platforms between practitioners and the public can come in the form of specific tools (Instagram, for example) or even events that are organized for that purpose (festivals and exhibitions). The conference is one of these platforms. A true ephemeral editorial object, it is highly suited to the explanation and extension of the practices and methodologies of designers. It is, for certain designers, the opportunity to take stock of an approach, an inventory of finished forms, and for others, on the contrary, a pretext for the production of new, sometimes more performative, even experimental forms.

n°29 — Girls, the Troopers of Dance. Aesthetization of Politics and Manipulation of Entertainment. Author: Alexandra Midal

Author: Alexandra Midal

32 pages, 21 × 29,7 cm, Black & White

17th February 2021

ISBN: 979-10-95991-18-2
ISSN: 2558-2062

Author: Alexandra Midal

32 pages, 21 × 29,7 cm, Black & White

17th February 2021

ISBN: 979-10-95991-18-2
ISSN: 2558-2062

The British origins of synchronized dancing—invented in 1880 by John Tiller in a cotton mill—were quickly forgotten in Berlin, where periodicals established themselves as the expression of standardization and American capitalism. The famous Tiller Girls had become the modern figure of the “New Woman”, performing in shows attracting more than four million spectators each year. A seduced Hitler asked for his own troupe: the Hiller Girls. Face to face, both periodicals look like strictly indistinguishable replicas, apart from their opposite messages.

Synchronized dancing revealed the democratic and fascist forms given to the political discourse of the Weimar Republic when the NSDAP seized power. Between the power of forms and forms of power, amid the destruction of cities, decrees banishing the use of Fraktur, and the destruction of degenerate art, those dance shows, undoubtedly because of their popularity, showed that National Socialism was using insidious and invisible strategies to empty forms of their content only to maintain their appearance intact, thus revealing a shadow practice that, in the end, turned out to be just as barbaric as world-wide destruction or the burning of books.

n°26 — Production process: Print on Demand. Author: Manon Bruet

Author: Manon Bruet
20 pages, 21 × 29,7 cm, CMYK
4th November 2020
ISBN: 979-10-95991-17-5
ISSN: 2558-2062

In 2008, English Graphic Designer James Goggin ran a two-day workshop with design students at the Hochschule Darmstadt in Germany. The object which resulted gradually took on the appearance of a photo album, a typeface specimen, and a color chart. On the cover, the phrase “Dear Lulu, Please try and print these line, color, pattern, format, texture and typography tests for us” is clearly addressed to the online print platform for which this book was proposed as a test.

Ten years later, the offer has become more diverse and the success of such online platforms is undeniable—indeed the phenomenon has spread well beyond the field of publishing. While some bemoan unfair competition for printers, others, professionals and amateurs, see in it a freedom to print and distribute relatively well finished objects at low cost.

The possibilities of these systems of production, are multiple but nonetheless limited, and this obviously raises the question of a possible standardization of forms and formats. However, when it comes to Print On Demand, it seems that the issue is not so much the materiality of an object (the choice of format, paper or a particular manufacture) but rather the actual existence of this object itself, outside of usual channels of production and distribution.