David Hammons
The design of this catalogue, which details around 30 paintings and sculptures created by David Hammons over a 50-year period, is heavily influenced by the artist’s strategies and processes. For example, the front and back cover are printed full bleed with large, abstract-seeming sections of pictures that emphasise the materiality and use of colour. The endpaper is a semi-transparent binding gauze, paying homage to Hammons’ many strategies that employ concealment and wrapping. His frequent layering of different materials is adeptly carried over to the structure of the book, in which four picture sections alternate with four sections of a long essay. The essay is laid out as if produced on a typewriter on pages that are somewhat narrower than the rest of the book, reminiscent of the minor variations in format to be found in the artworks. While the book shows multiple pictures of each work, bringing different levels of meaning to the fore as the gaze shifts, the text sheds light on this complexity, always staying close to the pictures, exploring two groups of works in depth. Hammons is portrayed as a trickster who constantly bemuses the onlooker – and the book also likes to befuddle. However, it is in no way over-designed, but precious and pared down.
