Design (and consultancy) of the book Les corps Incorruptibles by the photographer Émilie Hallard.
The book, published by Maria Inc., questions the beauty standards by celebrating non-normative and diverse bodies. It is a declaration of feminist, queer and anti-racist love.
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Texts by Judith Butler, Antonio Centeno, Virginies Despentes, Jean Kilbourne, Daria Marx, Erin McKean, Elvira Swartch Lorenzo, Nicole Seck and Julie Rambal.
First edition: 500 copies | Softcover with sticker | 120 pages, 23 x 29,5 cm | offset printing:Â Nova Era, Barcelona
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Process:
Les corps incorruptibles is the result of a 7-years long work by Émilie Hallard. During the last year, I shared her artistic process, by following the progress of the shooting. We both conceived the concept of the book and, progressively, I designed it, from a first dummy to the final version.
The design of the whole book was inspired by the key-words of incorruptible, body, punk, love.Â
We played, through the layout, the treatment and the cut of the cover photo, to work on visually stereotypes and dismantling both the structure of the photo-text essay and the fashion magazine.
For the design of the cover, I especially focused on avoiding the exoticization and fetishism, often appearing in the imagery connected to the black women as well as a kind of washing, by advertising, associated with “diversity and race”.
With Émilie, we also preferred not making a direct reference to politic visual codes of movements, in order to respect these spaces. Moreover, the cover wanted to be not-violent, in order to invite seeing with tenderness the nude portraits inside, which are much more intimate.
The sticker on the cover claims to this free space the book wants to reiterate and reminds to the stickers on some streets of Barcelona.Â
The non-conformity with the norm is also expressed through the asymmetric page layout of the photo-portraits inside the book.Â
Black-and-white duality inserts inside the book, breaking the rhythm.
The black pages with text extracts, work each one as small “manifesto” (better than as aphorisms) and, at the same time, as big footnotes of the complete texts at the end of the book. The black line which comes out from the text pages at the end is a coherent continuation of this positioning.
Finally, the aesthetic of the book and the typography, follow that one of post-punk and Émilie’s t-shirts.
We revised cover albums, we attended concerts together, and we get inspired by songs, to finally choose minimal and modern typography, which could also represent the personality of the author.
