Exploring a complex emotional landscape, Jadé Fadojutimi's paintings offer an insight into the artist's quest for identity and self-knowledge. This book, which is Fadojutimi’s first monograph, was published to mark her solo exhibition Jesture at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, which featured large-scale works created during the 2020 lockdown. We worked closely with the artist and the gallery to develop a design approach that reflected her practice, emphasising the role the publication plays as an extension and expression of Fadojutimi’s ideas and processes.
The large format of the book was chosen to reflect the scale of Fadojutimi’s paintings, and their gestural qualities are expressed through the use of the artist's handwriting for the cover title, which is debossed in a subtly pearlised white foil. Inside, transparency is a recurrent theme, expressed through the use of translucent coloured paper that wraps sections within the book. These are used to overlay details of paintings, creating an immersive feel. As emphatic use of colour is central to Fadojutimi’s work, which is reflected in spot colour highlights throughout, complimenting the coloured transparencies. The publication also entwines Fadojutimi’s practice as a writer and an artist, with texts and writings interspersed throughout, accompanied by an essay by Jennifer Higgie. The resulting publication situates itself in the intersection between a monograph and an artist’s book.
