Experience the fascinating world of KAWS in this ingenious book. KAWS: HE EATS ALONE, published in 2020, celebrates the first exhibition in Qatar on this major contemporary artist. Designed by the New York studio 2x4, the publication presents a multilayered portrait of the exhibition, a journey with spectacular photography by Jonty Wilde.
Winner of a 2020 AIGA 50 Books | 50 Covers Award for Design Excellence
A compact package of surprises, this book takes readers on a visual journey through the show, with subtle glimpses along the way into the artist’s career and process.
Referencing the interior and exterior design of the exhibition, the cover jacket features a detail from one of the artist’s paintings, a striking riot of colour offset by the black and white screen-printed book edges and sober black cloth binding.
The internal pages continue this juxtaposition, with the opening section on the installation photographed in black and white, followed by full-colour double-page exhibition views. These are accompanied by archival photos and artwork close-ups, tucked within a complex system of foldouts for readers who want to go deeper into the artist’s career.
The essay, which pauses the journey for an analysis by Germano Celant, uses a compact ‘playful’ grid, illustrated with multiple thumbnail images on uncoated paper, providing a strong contrast to the double page spreads and coated paper of the gallery images.
The exhibition journey then continues to the gallery courtyard, dominated by the 5-metre-high sculpture Companion (Passing Through), before arriving at the dense archive of KAWS’ toys and figurines in the second gallery space.
Concluding with a dramatic change of scene, the book then takes readers to the large inflatable Companion installed at the Doha harbour against the backdrop of the hyper-modern city.
Language: English
Publication date: 2020
ISBN: 978-9927108532
