Christina Quarles’ paintings combine observations from life with an attempt to express the physical experience of inhabiting her own body; she describes them as 'portraits of inhabiting a body, rather than portraits of looking onto a body'. This monograph was published to accompany Quarles’ solo exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield during spring 2020 – her first museum exhibition held in Europe. The book is the first in a publishing series, which accompanies the Hepworth’s programme show-casing new works by leading contemporary artists.
Quarles’ paintings display a powerful emotional honesty, and we were keen not to interrupt their impact through an overstated design. The publication cover features a detail from one of her works, with her name carefully superimposed by silkscreening onto a clear acetate slipcover; in this way, the type is playfully integrated as a layer, creating shadows in an echo of some of the artist’s own techniques. To reflect the presence of raw materials such as canvas within Quarles’ work, we chose a one-side-coated Kraft board for the cover, emphasising the tactile quality of the book form.
Quarles’ name on the cover is set in Benjamin Critton’s Mabry typeface, which was chosen for its particularly characterful ‘Q’ letterform.
