Allan McCollum The Book of Shapes, 2010
Specifications
Set of 2 volumes, each 27.9 cm x 21.6 cm
Volume I: 632 pages
Volume II: 360 pages
Printed on Phoenix Motion Xantur 150g
Signatures are double-stitched with white cotton thread.
Gold foil-blocked types on front cover and spine
Red headband
Printed by Arte-Print
Bound by Stéphanie Drumel
Production
Edition of 70 numbered and signed copies and 10 artist's proofs
Certificate numbered and signed by the artist
Produced and published by mfc-michèle didier in 2010
©2022 Allan McCollum and mfc-michèle didier
NB: All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the artist and the publisher.
Selected collections:
CNAP, Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris
LaM, Villeneuve d'Ascq
MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York
This book completes The Shapes Project, a project initiated by McCollum in 2005: The artist created a system for producing over 31 billion different shapes, made from the combination of six groups of type-elements. Each shape is destined to be assigned to a single individual. Volume I contains all the patterns, while volume II includes the guides for creating all possible combinations. Finding its method in the analysis of mass production, The Shapes Project proposes a paradox: the artist's wish to produce a work of art at a massive scale, but at the same time ensuring that none of these objects, although created from the same mold, are identical. The Book of Shapes lets us grasp the magnitude of this ambitious plan.