A close collaboration between the design team and the curators, Under Control references technology and bureaucracy to emphasize the different types of control we encounter in our lives. The simple cover, using monospaced type and embossed with a keyboard, sets the tone for the rest of the book. The lightweight paper is intended to evoke government documents, and the blue continues to make computer culture, especially the web, a presence throughout. The reader is forced to confront the variety of ways we are controlled, and sees how the artists choose to conform or break out of those boundaries.

This modest exhibition catalogue uses materials judiciously yet with strength. The form reflects the curatorial intent encompassing the notion of control rather than design as intervention. Note the keyboard buttons with “control” are embossed.