Park Seo-Bo. The Newspaper Ecritures, 2022 – 23
This catalogue of the final series of works by the South Korean painter, who died at the age of 91, engages very skilfully with the artworks in all facets of the design, occasioning a unique object that will endure long after the exhibition. The works consist of single pages of French, Korean and US newspapers from the 1950s to 1980s that the artist has largely painted over with delicate white, grey and black forms. The book’s thin paper references newsprint, while the one-sided printing of the Japanese accordion-style binding – an allusion to newspaper folds – precludes any transparency. All the works, one to a page and with excellent reproduction quality, are shown to optimal effect. The very calm typography in the accompanying texts captures the mood of the artworks that, though perhaps seen as typographical in nature, often leave only traces of text. In spite of the consistent and uniform design elements, the book does not come across as stiff; rather, playful details such as the varying placement of the page numbers and captions allude to irregular details in the works. The splendid cover design offers an abstract interpretation of the work by covering up the text in a novel way so that the title remains readable. Although fulfilling all the requirements of a traditional exhibition catalogue, the result stands entirely on its own merits without feeling overly designed. With restraint and understatement, the sensitive design, choice of materials and outstanding production result in a book that, for all its innovation, comes across as astonishingly natural.
