Translating spatial dissonance and symbolic layering into print.

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The book was developed in response to Metafisica da Giardino curated by Francesco Vezzoli at Nahmad Projects, which staged a  dialogue between Giorgio de Chirico and Vezzoli. The show was dense with reference – classical statuary, illusory architecture, metaphysical symbols – and structured as a series of spatial and temporal disjunctions. The task was to design a publication that didn’t merely document the exhibition, but embodied its internal logic. It created a historical dialogue, where the Italian 20th century re-emerges as part of the present, as seen through Vezzoli’s eyes. This catalogue reflects both de Chirico’s iconic works and Vezzoli’s complex practice, using design techniques and materials to capture their experimental and irreverent spirit.

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Rather than impose narrative order, the book resists linearity. Transparent acetate layers juxtapose the artists' performative self-portraits, while semi-opaque papers merge their muses’ faces – playing with both time and identity. French folds introduce thresholds and interruptions, while die-cut elements fragment the page, creating apertures and visual slippages that mirror the exhibition’s destabilising effect. One section reconstructs the experience of moving through the ‘sun room’, using scale, layering and pacing to approximate its sensorial rhythm. 

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Typographic restraint was key. The palette is deliberately minimal, allowing the structure and materials to carry much of the conceptual weight. The result is a publication that operates more as an environment than a record – staging a quiet, tactile version of the metaphysical enquiry that defined the exhibition. Metafisica da Giardino is both an editorial object and a conceptual proposition – a book that performs its subject rather than explaining it. You can view the exhibition identity in detail here.

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Artists: Francesco Vezzoli, Girogio de Chirico

Gallery: Nahmad Projects

Art Direction & Design: Billie Temple