FAMILY HISTORY
Gillian Wearing

Through the investigative and informed eye of it’s director Stephen Bode, SecMoCo is privileged to have worked on many projects for Film and Video Umbrella, London, UK. FVU commission, curate and produces artists’ moving-image works and presents them in collaboration with galleries and other cultural partners.

Originally intended to be a record of the artist’s video installation ‘Family History’; through close and detailed work with the artist, this turned into a varied and visually rich document of the piece, the material surrounding its conception, and that leading up to its production.

Perhaps because of her Midland’s background, Gillian proved to be the most enjoyable and generous of artists to work with, to the point that she presented a painting used on the set for the video installation to SecMoCo as a gift. It’s a rather fine seascape and will be uploaded here at some point in the future.

Published by Film and Video Umbrella, London, and Maureen Paley, London, 2007 in association with at Ikon Birmingham, UK, and Artists in the City, Reading, UK. Edited, and with a text by, Steven Bode; additional texts: Paul Morley, Stuart Comer; 280 x 216 mm; 80pp thread sewn; 4-colour and black and white illustrations; 4-colour printed paper case cover (no dust jacket);

From the Ikon website: ‘This immaculately designed publication traces the development of this project in a visual style whose distinctive aesthetic draws out parallels between the 1970s and the present that are such a feature of the work itself. Continuing the biographical theme of the exhibition, the book brings together film stills and location photographs with other personal and archive material, and features essays by critic Paul Morley and project curator Steven Bode, and an interview between Gillian Wearing and Stuart Comer’.

SMASH THIS PUNY EXISTENCE
Inventory, Book Works

SecMoCo were invited by the magnanimous Mattew Higgs, via the excellent publishers Book Works, to help design and produce Smash This Puny Existence with the artfully subversive collective known as Inventory. This resulted in the publication taking the form of broadsheet posters– large format, double-sided sheets housed within long cardboard tubes.

First published by Book Works 1999 in an edition of 1,500 copies; edited by Matthew Higgs as part of the series Publish And Be Damned; 6 x b&w double-sided sheets, 678 x 478 mm, rolled and housed in a cardboard tube

Context from the Book Works website:
Smash This Puny Existence emerged from street actions staged by Inventory in streets in London and Glasgow. Overnight, the collective fly-posted a series of newly-commissioned texts and images along with ‘found’ material, transforming two busy thoroughfares into public ‘newspapers’. The street became a discursive, polemical space, a place for the exchange of ideas and information. […] It is a significant contribution to Inventory’s ongoing determination of a ‘fierce sociology’.

Links:
www.bookworks.org.uk/node/1560
https://www.bookworks.org.uk/node/1131
https://www.bookworks.org.uk/node/1126

PERFORMANCE FOUNDATION
Identity: print and digital

SecMoCo were appointed by the estimable and inspiring Alan Read (Professor of Theatre in the Department of English, School of Arts & Humanities, Kings College, London, UK) to develop the digital and print identity for the Performance Foundation, based in the Anatomy Theatre & Museum at Kings, on the Strand and the East Wing of Somerset House. As an organisation it seeks to to broker, via a process of creative arts, cultural interventions and practice-led processes, collaborative associations between academics, artists, artisans, architects and the interested public in the areas of performance techniques and technologies, and their operation.

performancefoundation.org.uk

GAVIN TURK COLLECTED WORKS
White Cube

‘Gavin Turk Collected Works 1989-1993’ was the first monograph on this celebrated British artist’s work, designed to accompany his first solo exhibition at Jay Jopling/White Cube, London.

Published in an edition of 1500 copies by Jay Jopling/White Cube, UK, 1993. Edited by Gavin Turk; texts by Andrew Wilson and Simon Bill; 280 x 200mm; 64pp; 4-colour images throughout; casebound, with cloth quarter-binding, embossed (no dustjacket).

BANNER
Fiona Banner

This book, entitled ‘Banner’ was the first monograph on the artist, and was designed to accompany the exhibition, ‘Your Plinth is My Lap’, at Dundee Contemporary Arts, UK and the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany.

First published in an edition of 1500 by Dundee Contemporary Arts, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, and Revolver, Frankfurt, 2002. Edited by Katrina M. Brown; dual edition texts (English and German) by Patricia Ellis, Michael Archer, Katrina M. Brown and Susanne Titz; 285 x 215 mm; 128 pp; 4-color images throughout; printed paper case (no dust jacket), endpapers, head and tail bands.

BISCUIT / OK
Identity: print and digital

Innovative product designers Michael Marriot and Simon Maidment approached SecMoCo to devise brand, digital and product identity, stationery, brochure and promotional clothing for Oreka Kids and ‘Biscuit’, the first furniture collection designed specifically for children.

Produced in 2000 by Oreka Kids, London, UK; Biscuit directed by Simon Maidment & Michael Marriot, London, UK, 2000. www.orekakids.com

It was pleasing to be able to employ ‘Sassoon Primary’ for Biscuit, a typeface for children’s books and teaching materials which is the result of a UK research project into which typefaces children find easiest to read. Designed by Rosemary Sassoon and Adrian Williams, it featuring sans-serif letters with a slight slant, and exit strokes on the baseline. Rosemary Sassoon discovered that no one had previously consulted and tested children for their preferences. The University of Reading awarded her a Ph.D. for her work on the Effects of Models and Teaching Methods on Joining Strokes in Children’s Handwriting.

Information about the typeface designer Rosemary Sassoon and her fonts: http://www.identifont.com/show?3XF

Links for some of the designer’s pieces for Biscuit:

www.michaelmarriott.com/furniture/oreka

www.simonmaidment.com/furniture/oreka-kids

www.stephenbretland.com/oreka-kids.html

CHRIS OFILLI
Serpentine Gallery

This first monograph on the British artist’s work was published in the year he won the Turner Prize, and to accompany his first solo exhibition in the UK at the Serpentine Gallery, London, Southampton City Art Gallery, and Whitworth Gallery, Manchester.

First edition published in an edition of 1,500 copies, by the Serpentine Gallery, London and the Southampton City Art Gallery, UK, 1998.

Edited, and with texts by, Lisa Corrin and Godfrey Worsdale; additional text by Kobena Mercer; 270x 210mm; 96pp, thread sewn; 4-colour images throughout; softcover with phosphorescent printing. Printed with Jim Pennington at Lithosphere, London, UK.

THE NAM
Fiona Banner

‘It has been described as unreadable’. Remember telephone directories? This is a huge, 1000 page, 280,000 word compilation of textual descriptions of films concerned with the Vietnam War.

‘…..read at a stretch, Banner’s simple, clear prose is hypnotic, and as exhausting as sitting through a Vietnam all-nighter. The text cascades in front of our eyes, melding and merging, and we read Banner’s commentary as she’s watching…’ Adrian Searle, Visual Arts, The Guardian, 22 April 1997.

Published in an edition of 1000 by Frith Street Books and The Vanity Press with assistance from the Arts Council of England, 1997

280 x 208mm (280 x 213mm hardback); 1000 pages; 1-colour (black) no images; paperback- thread sewn, cover cut flush; hardback- thread sewn with printed paper case (no dust jacket)

AQUATOPIA
Tate/Nottingham Contemporary

This publication accompanied the exhibition of the same name at Nottingham Contemporary and Tate St Ives. Working closely with Alex Farquarson (Director, Nottingham Contemporary) and Martin Clarke (Artistic Director, Tate St Ives) it was felt that the publication should be designed to function more as a ‘reader’ or compendium of textual and visual sources than a conventional exhibition catalogue. As such it includes a huge range of work from a diverse selection of contemporary and classic artists and writers.

First edition published by Tate, London, UK, 2013. Edited, and with a foreword/introduction by Martin Clarke and Alex Farquarson. Texts: Philip Hoare and Marina Warner; additional texts: various; 198 x 129 mm. 240pp; 4-colour images throughout; paperback, flapped cover

From the press release: ‘It occupies 72 per cent of the surface of our planet, yet the depths of our oceans are less known to us than the Solar System. The publication is a cross-disciplinary exploration of the aquatic imaginary, encompassing literature, maritime and cultural history, psychoanalysis, post-colonial and feminist theory, and including work from a diverse selection of artists and writers, both contemporary and classic masters.

UNHOLY LIBEL
Jake & Dinos Chapman

For their first major U.S. exhibition (‘Six Feet Under’ Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA, September 13-October 11, 1997) Jake and Dinos Chapman asked SecMoCo to design the accompanying publication. More than a catalogue, it was seen as a stand alone edition developing the themes and concerns of the work, as such the design took a blasphemous turn, adopting the form of the helpful reading material you could once find in the drawer of any hotel room bedside cabinet.

First published by Gagosian Gallery, US, 1997; edited, and with a text by Jake and Dinos Chapman; 215x164mm; 152pp; thread sewn; 48 color illustrations; gilt edges; brown faux-leather covers in plastic jacket, gold embossing. Print: Jim Pennington for Lithosphere, London

Context from Amazon:
Best Sellers Rank: #4,107,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Antonio A. Urdiales on December 30, 2005
‘Once again Jake and Dinos Chapman take us on a trip through the absurd. This book has a very thin narrative running through it. If you’re looking for fiction by two of the most vile of Britain’s artworld, you’ve come to the wrong place, LEAVE NOW!

The books is a series of vingettes detailing gruesome monstrosities in the style of J.G. Ballard. I’m sure there was a plot in there somewhere, but the chapters were so short (think two to three a page) and fragmented that I lost it. Mostly it just read like details from an apocalyptic surgical guide. Which isn’t for everybody. But if you enjoy exploding brains and monstrous genitalia, LA TEE DA! The written word was fun if not tiring. But the real beauty of the book is in the plates of the boys sculptures. The sculptural work of the Chapman brothers is grotesque divinity, detailing mutated children from a land in which all normal notions of beauty have been subverted. And the colored plates dispersed throughout the writings were excellent examples of their sculptural works and just truly a joy to look at. The book is also gilt edged with a beautifully embossed cover, it’s also a very tiny book which makes one desire to carry it around as a horrifying talisman of the new age. This book is a VERY rare artbook as well, created by the Gagosian Gallery in New York. An edition of this book costs about $100 to thousands for signed copies. I would highly recommend picking up an edition up if you’re a collector of YBA artworks or the Chapman brothers, I wouldn’t doubt that the price will skyrocket in coming years.’

http://www.amazon.com/Unholy-Libel-Six-Feet-Under/dp/1880154145