A monograph that absorbs and envelops – layering image, text, and material to mirror the depth and atmosphere of Stacey Gillian Abe’s world.

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Designed to accompany Stacey Gillian Abe’s debut London solo exhibition at Unit London, Shrub-Let of Old Ayivu is a monograph that reflects the material and conceptual concerns of her practice, ensuring her work remains unapologetically present – both visually and materially. Abe’s work is deeply rooted in personal memory, ancestral heritage, and the reconfiguration of Black identity, drawing on her own experiences and relationships to explore themes of identity, gender, spirituality and cultural mysticism. The autobiographical dimension of her work challenges traditional representations of the Black body, confronting the colonial lens that has historically shaped narratives of identity and visibility.

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Indigo plays a central role in this reclamation. Beyond its visual intensity, it carries deep historical and cultural resonance in West Africa – a dye long associated with ritual, symbolism, and status, but also with exploitation and forced labour under colonial rule. Abe reclaims indigo not as a marker of oppression but as a symbol of resilience, self-definition, and transcendence. Her indigo-skinned figures inhabit imagined spaces that feel both mystical and deeply introspective, where past, present, and future converge. To Abe, indigo is an intersection between the body and identity, a means of reimagining Black futures beyond historical, social, or political constraints. As she describes, ‘Indigo as a skin tone is an alternative form of looking at the Black body. It is not a packaged commodity or a stepping stone but something precious, priceless.’

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The book translates these ideas through a fabric-textured cover, gold foil detailing, and Reflex Blue ink, ensuring indigo is not just represented but structurally embedded into the design. A dual-paper system enhances the contrast between the richness of her imagery and the intimacy of the text, while throw-outs evoke the folding and unfolding of fabric, introducing moments of expansion that require active engagement from the reader. The layout is image-led, ensuring Abe’s work dominates the space, with full-bleed reproductions asserting presence, cropped details heightening materiality, and shifts in scale creating rhythm and movement. Typography in Fragment Glare reinforces this sense of movement, with text columns subtly shifting in length, creating an undulating rhythm that mirrors the drape and layering of fabric in Abe’s work. Negative space is carefully considered, allowing moments of breath between images and text, preventing the book from feeling rigid or over-designed. Reflex Blue ink extends beyond the text, defining spatial relationships, hierarchy, and subtle graphic interventions, ensuring that indigo remains a guiding presence throughout the book.

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Shrub-Let of Old Ayivu functions as a considered translation of Abe’s work into print, allowing its material, spatial, and conceptual depth to be sustained beyond the exhibition context.​

Artist: Stacey Gillian Abe

Design: Billie Temple / Assistant Design: Agatha Smith

Contributors: Stacey Gillian Abe, Catherine Mckinley, Flavia Frigeri, Serubiri Moses, Joe Kennedy

Editor: Kelsey Corbett

Published by Hurtwood Press
Product Photography: George House