Design: Exhibition catalogue
Client: Centre Pompidou Paris
Publisher: JRP|Ringier Zurich in co-edition with Éditions du Centre Pompidou Paris
Editors: John Armleder, Mathieu Copeland, Laurent Le Bon, Gustav Metzger, Mai-Thu Perret, Clive Phillpot, Philippe Pirotte
Design collaboration: Corinne Zellweger and Gavillet & Rust Geneva
Publication date: February 2009

English and French editions, 215 x 280mm, 544 pages
Voids. A Retrospective: ISBN 978-3-03764-036-4
Vides. Une rétrospective: ISBN 978-3-03764-017-3

Awarded at:
Best Book Design from all over the World 2010, Bronze, Stiftung Buchkunst Leipzig
The most beautiful Swiss Books 2009, Federal Office of Culture

Voids (Vides), structured both as an exhibition catalogue and an anthology of texts, was launched at the occasion of the Pompidou retrospective of "empty exhibitions". The show – itself an empty exhibition – brought together nine artists from the past fifty years, each of which presented their vision of an empty space, gallery or museum – among them Yves Klein's "Le Vide".
The 550-page publication opens with a catalogue section (color on glossy paper) that documents the selected exhibitions and is followed by the anthology section (b/w on matt paper), containing more than forty texts. The third and last part (b/w on grey paper) shows artist contributions created exclusively for this volume.
In order to remain objective on the concept of the void, we opted for a neutral and somewhat distant design, set in Theinhardt and based on a rigorously systematic grid. The layout combines image and text in a diversified and playful manner.
In parallel to the catalogue, we were also commissioned to design the exhibition signage, most of which was based on the catalogues' visual identity.