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Design Category
Book design, 1998
Design firm
Henk Van Assen (New York, New York)
Collection
(1999) 50 Books/50 Covers of 1998
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Cantos Paralelos is an art catalogue investigates the work of nine Argentinian artists produced between 1960 and 1997. The most important element that unites the work is the use of parody, as an attempt to criticize art and politics.
The book is structured untraditionally in a mixture of essays, artist’s writings, and newspaper articles interspersed with color plates of the exhibited works. As many of the selected artists were not part of the art establishment, several of the images are printed as screenbacks to indicate a sub-narrative. The high-end, glossy paper commonly used for art catalogues was avoided here, to reflect the fact that many of these artists were forced to work with cheap and found materials and to reflect the idea that newspapers were an important and active medium for artists.