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, writer and art historian Philomena Epps, and artist and writer Sean Burns analyze the artist’s practice through art historical and literary perspectives.

Published with the support of the Mondriaan Fonds, the Jaap Harten Fonds, and the Stedelijk Museum Fonds.