SANDWICH
A series of discursive pamphlets

First published in 2001, this experimental series pursued a design-led conjunction of art and theory. Contributors included philosophers, artists, and artist-writers, and sought to operate at the constantly shifting point between the two poles of popular ‘take-up’, and academic reflection.

Where academic writing may put a break on art and its concepts, in the popular realm the same ideas can circulate quite freely. If anything they are thereby accelerated, propelling thought at greater velocity. To provide a new, faster, and looser form of print communication Sandwich showcased commissioned writing and art from contemporary theorists and practitioners that were conceptual and reflective but could be accessed in a popular format, following the pamphlet/chapbook tradition.

As such it was hoped it may push, from both ends, a redirection of what writing about art and aesthetics might be. To this end, Sandwich attempted to harness the effective power of the popular through both content and form.

Each issue consisted of 1xA2 sheet, folding down to A6, with 2x cover boards affixed to the top and bottom of the folded sheet.
-A2 Sheet front: x2 commissioned texts plus 1x commissioned artwork, the latter ‘sandwiched’ between the former.
-A2 Sheet reverse: full size poster, commissioned image/text project

• Issue 0 (Pilot issue), Autumn 2001: Mystic Materialism for Bored Aesthetes
Text a: The Song of The Norias Alphonso Lingis; Text b: Year Zero Jake Chapman
Artists project: Ovals Simon Bill; broadsheet poster/text: Bauhaus Yoga Paulina Olowska
Font: Univers; colour: PAN 032C (red)

• Issue 1, Autumn 2004: The Science of the Becoming of Matter
Text a: The Language of Insects Nigel Cooke; Text b: Abstract Sex, an extract Luciana Parisi
Artists project: Fungi Kingdom Emanations Alison Gill; broadsheet poster/text: Compliance Aya Ben Ron
Font: Optima; colour: PAN 301C (blue)

Mainly for economic reasons only two issues of Sandwich were generated, but as an effect of the distribution/circulation of those issues I was approached in 2011 by the artist Brian Chalkley to produce another issue as the accompanying publication for his exhibition at the Horst Schuler Galerie, in Dusseldorf, Germany. I used this as an opportunity to test the formal flexibility and durable potential of the format.

• Issue 2, Autumn 2011: Brian Chalkley: Career Girls
Artists project: Career Girls Brian Chalkley; broadsheet poster/text: Career Girls Brian Chalkley
Font: Melior; colour: C0/M55/Y100/K0 (orange)

Technical information
Published in editions of 1000 copies, by SecMoCo, London, UK; edited by Simon Josebury (issues 0 & 1), Simon Josebury, Jake Chapman and Suhail Malik (issue 1); texts and images: various contributors; size: as above; stock: 90/400gsm Chromolux, shrink wrapped; printed by Furnival Press, London (issue 0), Aldgate Press, London (issue 1), Calverts, London (issue 2).
[NB: the 2x separate cover boards, for front and back, used for issue 0 was changed to 1x cover incorporating front and back, with a spine, for issue 1]

The first issue was included in the book NoBrief: Graphic Designer’s Personal Projects (RotoVison, 2002). Selected and edited by John O’Reilly, his commentary within provides a more than decent account of the form and content:‘This art pamphlet opens up to a full poster. On one side there is an image of a work by Paulina Olowska called ‘Bauhaus Yoga’, with an essay by her in the bottom-left-hand corner, which is the back of the pamphlet.The cardboard cover is in the top-right-hand corner, hence the title ‘Sandwich’. The other side contains, among other items, an essay called ‘Meatphysics’ by artist Jake Chapman.This is the first issue of Sandwich and is as much an object in itself as a forum for artists and writers. Designer Simon Josebury’s work for London’s Cabinet gallery has meant that this pamphlet has a unique perspective that is both highly intellectual and raw’.

Testing
Sandwich existed as a journal but also as a pamphlet/broadsheet/poster, a formally delimited space, but one with infinite potential, where text and image could combine to generate new meanings.

MAKE EVERYTHING NEW
Book Works

This was a collection of texts and artists projects, examining the possibility of a communist informed contemporary art practice

The book: published in an edition of 1,500 copies by Book Works, London, UK and Project Arts Centre, Dublin, UK, 2006; 240 x 170mm; 176pp, thread sewn; 4-colour images throughout; paperback cover

Accompanying 2-colour poster edition, incorporating extract from the text: 710 x 538mm

Context from the Book Works catalogue: ‘Communism is routinely defined as defeated and its conquest the subject of regular celebration. Caught in the disappointment and negative connotations of the past, it has become all but unthinkable. Make Everything New – A Project On Communism seeks to rescue the idea of Communism from this trap. Collaborating with artists, writers and collectives, this project has commissioned and collected counter-narratives, abstract and unrealistic ideas, engaged political commentary and satirical work, that presents neither an historical or comprehensive overview nor a requiem for the past. It is a collection of partial and subjective accounts of various creative practices, an experimental platform for ideas and an attempt to see in what ways the communist imagination can be materialised as art.’

LITTLE PRIVATE GOVERNMENTS
Amanda Beech & Matthew Poole

SecMoCo were flattered to be approached by this grouping of cutting-edge contemporary theorists/artists to devise an identity relavent to the ideas informing their exhibition, catalogue and symposium Little Private Governments which examined the relationship of art to organizational systems and power (University Gallery Essex, 01 February 2006).

First published by University of the West of England, 2006; edited, and with a foreword by, Amanda Beech & Matthew Poole; texts by Suhail Malik and Roman Vasseur; 210 x 148 mm; 48 pp; 20 color images; softcover with 4-colour cover.

Accompanying 4-colour poster edition, incorporating design for the catalogue cover: 420 x 297mm.

Context, from the exhibition and symposium publicity:
Little Private Governments brings together emerging and established artists whose work demonstrates a long-term interest in the rhetoric of freedom and democracy. The exhibition includes works by Amanda Beech, Pil & Galia Kollectiv, Jenny Holzer, Martin Kippenberger, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Roman Vasseur. The accompanying catalogue includes commisioned new writing from three authors covering current debates on aesthetics and politics: a collaborative essay by Beech and Poole, and essays by Dr Suhail Malik and Roman Vasseur.

Jointly curated by Matthew Poole and Amanda Beech ‘Little Private Governments’ addresses the place of art within the structures of capitalism, democracy and idealism.

Links:
www.romanvasseur.com

BOOK DESIGN:
Series

I was the Senior Graphic Designer at Routledge, London, UK, until 1995. Here I carried out cover and text design, plus commissioning of illustration, photography and freelance designers, over a range of titles for various lists, totaling over 200 books annually.

I have continued to work for Routledge, and other academic publishers, to the present day on a freelance commissioned basis.

Above are a selection of series designs for Routledge, to see images of individual, non-series, titles see ‘Book design: non-fiction’ on the homepage.

BOOK DESIGN
Non-fiction

I have continued to design for Routledge, and other academic publishers, to the present day on a freelance commissioned basis.

Above is a selection of individual designs, to see images of series designs see ‘Book design: series’ on the home page.