Chronicle Books, September 2010
"Exquisite corpse" was a collaborative drawing game that grew out of the surrealism movement of the 1920's. The game involved three players, each of whom drew either the head, torso, or legs of a single character on a single piece of paper without seeing the contributions of the other two. The Exquisite Book, a joint effort between 100 artists, coordinated and edited by Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, and Matt Lamothe, is a wonderful expansion on this blind collaboration concept.
Rothman, Volvovski, and Lamothe invited 100 contemporary fine artists, illustrators, designers and comic artists to participate in the creation of The Exquisite Book, and these 100 were split into groups of ten, each of which would create a narrative around a phrase such as In the Clouds, In the Ocean, or In the City. The first artist in each group of ten, was supplied only with the key phrase, which he or she would interpret in single page illustration. The next artist in line would similarly illustrate one page, but without knowing the phrase, basing their work only on the illustration that came before, and each artist in succession would do the same, create a single page, having only seen the previous page.
"Exquisite corpse" was a collaborative drawing game that grew out of the surrealism movement of the 1920's. The game involved three players, each of whom drew either the head, torso, or legs of a single character on a single piece of paper without seeing the contributions of the other two. The Exquisite Book, a joint effort between 100 artists, coordinated and edited by Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, and Matt Lamothe, is a wonderful expansion on this blind collaboration concept.
Rothman, Volvovski, and Lamothe invited 100 contemporary fine artists, illustrators, designers and comic artists to participate in the creation of The Exquisite Book, and these 100 were split into groups of ten, each of which would create a narrative around a phrase such as In the Clouds, In the Ocean, or In the City. The first artist in each group of ten, was supplied only with the key phrase, which he or she would interpret in single page illustration. The next artist in line would similarly illustrate one page, but without knowing the phrase, basing their work only on the illustration that came before, and each artist in succession would do the same, create a single page, having only seen the previous page.
© Chronicle Books
The result of this work is ten ten-page narrations, each full of marvelously unique illustrations, each connected via theme, color, or perhaps just a single graphical element. The ten-page spreads are laid out in The Exquisite Book as five-page accordions with five drawings on both the front and the back side. Though each image connects loosely to its neighbors, the images are all stylistically unique, making this work a truly inspirational visual medley that draws me back repeatedly to discover more each time in its pages.
Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, and Matt Lamothe met while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) after which they founded their own company, ALSO Design, where they create websites for small companies. Julia Rothman is also behind the popular book design blog, www.book-by-its-cover.com.
Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, and Matt Lamothe met while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) after which they founded their own company, ALSO Design, where they create websites for small companies. Julia Rothman is also behind the popular book design blog, www.book-by-its-cover.com.
© Chronicle Books
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