A publication that celebrates the work created by the artist Magali Reus for her second major US show, A Sentence in Soil, held at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, between 14 May – 9 October 2022. The exhibition is an installation of new work that examines how the forms of simple, recognisable objects can generate an immediate chain of associations when dislocated from their original functions. Sculptures that explore, expand upon, and contradict the physical properties and cultural baggage of its original source. Working in close collaboration with the artist and curator Catherine Craft, this book divides the content between two halves. Utilising two separate Swiss-bound book blocks, fixed within the textured, recycled board cover. This material is more often used for packaging purposes, referenced through the presence of the barcode on the spine of the book.

A collectible publication on Magali Reus’ thinking of objecthood.

Renowned for her particular take on what contemporary sculpture can be and express, Magali Reus draws on a vast range of formal influences and references, from the domestic to the industrial, the functional to the decorative, creating works that evolve as a fascinating accumulation and layering of visual details. 

Designed by Irma Boom, one of the most prestigious graphic designers active today, this artist’s book offers a unique approach to art making through the unveiling of the sources, visual imagery, and connections that gave birth to the realization of three emblematic series by Magali Reus: “Dearest,” 2018; “Empty Every Night,” 2019; and “Settings,” 2019–2021. Conceived as a space where the viewer can take their time to get a closer, more intimate connection to her work, the publication alternates views of the works, close–up details, and various materials—from a 3D technical rendering and production calculations to mock ups, samples, and research photography. Sharing her production, process, and research archive, Reus allows the reader to decipher the circulation of motifs from one medium to another, her specific take on the ideas of hierarchy, representation, and systems of production, and how she explores the tensions between nature, technology, and the impact of postindustrial human activity. The book gives full credit to her ongoing thinking on objecthood and how the objects and forms she creates take on a strange, disobedient agency. Made of three separate volumes, featuring different paper and taped together, this collectible publication is itself a powerful object.

Three contributions by art critic and curator Anthony Huberman (“Leather and Logistics”), writer and art historian Philomena Epps (“The Other Hour”), and artist and writer Sean Burns (“A Love Affair”) analyze the artist’s practice through art historical and literary perspectives.

KOOL. A Type Specimen is an artist’s book built around KOOL (“cabbage” in Dutch), a new font designed by Magali Reus, winner of the seventh edition of the Arnaldo Pomodoro Prize for Sculpture. Midway between a plant alphabet and concrete poetry, the KOOL font is created in collaboration with Antonio de la Hera and Kia Tasbihgou and includes twenty-six lowercase letters, twenty-six uppercase letters, a complete set of numbers, sixteen punctuation marks, and six symbols.

The project is the upshot of a three-year research project focused on the visual and calligraphic relationship between scraps of red cabbage and letters of the Roman alphabet. The volume is inspired by the traditional format of the type specimen book, or type foundry sample book, used to show clients the myriad graphic possibilities, layouts, and configurations unique to a new typeface.
The book features texts by design writer Emily King and Rebecca May Johnson, a food specialist, and was created in conjunction with Off Script: a solo exhibition by Reus staged by the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation in collaboration with the Museo del Novecento in Milan.

Red Roses shows the extraordinary artistic practice of this internationally acclaimed London-based artist and winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome 2015. The publication features a range of recent works. Magali Reus (b. 1981, The Hague) has been creating hyper-realistic sculptures for more than a decade. She represents, redefines, enlarges and deforms everyday objects in various materials and using surprising combinations of digital, manual and industrial processes. Reus’s work explores our relationship with utilitarian objects and the inextricable context of consumer society. Her virtuoso objects appear functional, but do not explicitly reveal what their function actually is. By investigating our relationship with objects, Reus is looking for a strategy to critically interrogate the production and consumption processes of our society.

Red Roses was produced in collaboration with the following partners: Museum Dhondt Dhaenens
Centre d’art contemporain – la synagogue de Delme
Atelier Calder
Galerie Fons Welters Galerie Greta Meert
The Approach Gallery
Mondriaan Fonds
Jaap Harten Fonds
De Gijselaar-Hintzenfonds