Diamond Dolls is an artist book by
Hormazd Narielwalla, co-published by
Concentric Editions and
EMH Arts, London. It takes the form of a limited edition (300 copies) made as an artist’s book in 3 Acts.
Diamond Dolls is a sumptuous artist’s book that originates from a sequence of Hormazd Narielwalla’s highly distinctive paper collages. The below image shows the front cover...
Conceived as a sculptural object in three parts and designed to stand like a series of shoji screens, the original collages are printed front and back to reveal the ‘artifice’ of cutting and pasting involved in their construction, while the foiling of paper edges and details of de-bossed abstract patterns, gives the opening and arranging of the book a tactile and performative quality.
Thirty six images carry a running motif of Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ persona, each of which is defined by elaborate, decorative costuming. Cipher-like, the figures reference the Japanese gender-fluid traditions of kabuki and onnagata, which influenced Bowie in his approach to challenging conventions about sexuality.
The books are litho printed by
PrintSmith on our Omnia 200gsm. Omnia was chosen for it's dead flat matt characteristics plus a tactile feel but as you can see, with great colour reproduction. PrintSmith printed this project using their expanded colour gamut process, which makes for the super bright colour rendition of the works along with super sharp detail, which as you can see from these images is amazing.
The concertina folded pages are printed front and back to reveal the of cutting and pasting of the original construction, below shows a detail...
The finished size of each three books is 240x165mm, portrait and each book is a 28pp concertina. The below image shows how the pages fold over as a conventional book, when folded up.
The full extent of the long concertina...
This superb book is currently being exhibited at the
Eagle Gallery in Farringdon Road (until 7th August), the picture below, shows the book (and the slipcase) at the exhibition.
There is also an installation in the window at Essie Carpets on Piccadilly.
This is a truly stunning piece of work and has been exceptionally well received in the artworld. A superb piece of print and finishing by Fenton at PrintSmith. Thanks to Hormazd Narielwalla, EMH Arts and PrintSmith for the images.
Posted by Justin Hobson 30.07.2021
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