A book as bold, irreverent and unexpected as Joe himself – where design, materiality and structure combine to turn chaos into an object of precision, personality and joyful excess.

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The design of Joe Lycett’s Art Hole was conceived as a direct extension of Lycett’s creative ethos: vibrant, irreverent and full of contradictions. The challenge was to create a book elastic enough to hold together the extremes of his practice without ever feeling predictable.​ The result is a book that doesn’t just document the work, but behaves like it. It’s a book that shows its seams, winks at its own construction, and refuses to behave like a conventional art monograph.

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The cover is deliberately garish – neon, high-gloss, and punctured by a die-cut hole revealing Lycett’s face. The hole becomes a physical embodiment of the book’s title and concept: a cheeky, literal portal into its world. Designed to shout from retail tables and draw in a broad, curious audience, the book treats visibility as part of the performance.

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Inside, the design walks a tightrope between chaos and control. A consistent typographic system and column grid provide just enough stability to anchor the surrounding mayhem. Layouts shift from restraint to riot, with collage pages offering bursts of layered image, scrawled text and gonzo colour. The rhythm is theatrical – part slapstick, part deadpan – and deliberately unpredictable. There’s joy in the excess, but also precision. Art Hole doesn’t pretend to be neutral. It’s not a monograph as summary, but as extension – where design and content are stitched together into one loud, generous, self-aware object.​

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Artist & Author: Joe Lycett

Art Direction & Design: Billie Temple & Joe Lycett 

Published by Trapeze (an imprint of Orion Books)

Product photography: George House and Tom Bird