Project

Imponderable: The Archives of Tony Oursler

Year

2015

Type

Location

To accompany a solo exhibition by the artist Tony Oursler at the LUMA Foundation in Arles, we collaborated with Oursler on a volume that presents the artist’s vast archive of ephemera relating to “thought photography”, the occult, UFOs, colour theory, fairies, cults, séances, magic, optics, mesmerism and many other areas of intrigue. The result is over 600 pages of photographs that document 1,200 objects tracing an intersecting visual history of various social, spiritual and intellectual histories and their paradoxical belief systems. Materials and production techniques include the use of metallic split fountain screen-print of a William Hope spirit photograph on a book cloth cover and a slipcase made out of archival board, which are both employed in order reflect the content within. The use of two idiosyncratic typefaces—a slightly condensed baroque serif based on an 18th century specimen from Haas Type Foundry and a contemporary “pixel cut” sans serif—refer to the dual quality of the artefacts that are both past- and future-oriented.

Second Edition, 2016

First Edition, 2015