The Institute are delighted to announce publication of Redell Olsen’s new book ‘Mox Nox’. The book was handmade in an edition of 10 copies for BOOKMARE project 2, ‘of average sunlight’, currently on show in Kingsgate Studios, London.

Set in Gill Sans and Copperplate, printed on Canelletto 160 and tracing paper, the edition features photosensitive adhesive paper. The cover is made of Canford paper and unique fragments of sun-print.

The book is bound with metal hoops.

Images are mostly from nineteenth century sources, such as travelogues of voyages to the Arctic, along with the design and mottoes of sundials.

These images are presented alongside the single contemporary image of a sundial in Aleppo. The text borrows from contextual sources that relate to the images tangentially, but which also make reference to current political and social crises, alongside ongoing measurements of sunlight and natural resources amid climate catastrophe.

Many of the images and various parts of the text have been treated with an adhesive paper that reacts in sunlight and which temporarily turns cyan blue. Like the energy sources, the ice and photosensitive plants alluded to in the poem, this book transforms in the hands of the reader who risks exposing herself and the books’ pages to the light of day.

Currently on show until May 2017, the installation of this book is curated by Finlay Taylor and Susan Johanknecht.