Book design to accompany the Gretchen Albrecht: Liquid States exhibition at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary gallery.

The exhibition surveyed the artist’s work spanning two decades the 1970’s and 1980’s. It drew connections between the two periods in her work connecting them with her approach to liquidity across both stained un primed canvas works and works on paper. Matching the unique approach to the exhibition's curation was pivotal. Simply following a chronological trajectory of an artist's work through each decade in the book was never an option.

At the heart of the show two large scale works, Receptum 1988 and Horizon 1978, represent the flow of ideas and modes of her work over these two decades. Having them side by side as a double gatefold felt like the natural choice and starting point for the layout. From there, mirroring the flow and rhythm of the exhibition, across 4 gallery spaces, within the publication to retain the exhibition's concept and order was key. In turn the essays too had to sit within this structure. Switching stocks across text and image to highlight the writing lead to numerous switches acting not as a break but coming at key intervals reinforcing the concept behind the choices and curation of the show.

Additional attention was paid to the finishing details with the exposed raw board referencing Gretchen's unfussy approach to materials. The cover colour too, a Chartreuse like green, was taken from one of Gretchen's iconic watercolours. The debossed title using ABC Dinamo's Helveesti with its spiked terminals to sink in and pinch the cover stock acted to challenge the audience and suggest that whilst you may be familiar with this iconic New Zealand artist's work, this show offers an entirely new way of looking at it.