Category Archives: Modern Art Oxford

TRIPLE BLUFF CANYON
Mike Nelson

Commissioned by the elegantly exacting Suzanne Cotter, this book was published to accompany the exhibition by 2004 Turner Prize nominee Mike Nelson at Modern Art Oxford.

The front cover utilised an Arts Magazine cover from May 1978 depicting a seminal work by Robert Smithson that the artist had recreated in the gallery at MAO. As such, the title and cover information was transferred to the reverse, adopting the typographic style of the gallery ads of that period.

First published, in an edition of 1000 copies, by Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK, 01 January 1999; edited by Suzanne Cotter; texts: Jeremy Millar and Brian Aldiss; 210x170mm; 72pp; 58 images, including 8pp colour plate section, 50 b&w image in uncoated section; paperback with 4-colour cover thread sewn; printed by Art Quarters, UK.

Context, from Andrew Mead at the Architect’s Journal website:
‘Entering a Mike Nelson installation is like stumbling into a minicab office in the early hours of the morning in the wrong part of a town you don’t know – and then things get worse’

3 SERIES: Modern Art Oxford/
Camden Arts Centre/Arnolfini

The then curator at Modern Art Oxford, Suzanne Cotter, kindly invited SecMoCo to devise a series design for the publications to accompany three artists’ commissions jointly organised by Modern Art Oxford; Camden Arts Centre, London; and Arnolfini, Bristol under the collective title of the 3 Series. In this initiative the work of the three artists (Mircea Cantor, Johanna Billing and Kerry Tribe) toured three galleries in the UK over a period of three years.

An understated design was called for, to foreground each artists work and also to allow for maximum flexibility over the course of the three year development of the project. This was achieved formaly rather than stylisticly, with the format and layout of the casebound books remaining constant, the font and colour scheme changing across the series for each publication.

Each book first published, in an edition of 1000 copies, by Modern Art Oxford / Camden Arts Centre / Arnolfini, Bristol, in 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively; 196mm x 262mm; 64pp; images– variable; 4-colour printed paper case cover (no dust jacket), thread sewn.

Book 1: The Need For Uncertainty Mircea Cantor: Edited, and with an introduction by Bruce Haines; book 2: I’m Lost Without Your Rhythm Johanna Billing: Edited, and with an introduction by Bruce Haines; book 3: Dead Star Light Kerry Tribe: Edited, and with an introduction by Nav Haq; texts by Juli Carson, Anne Ellegood, Herbert Martin