Gareth Fisher Sculpture in Plaster 1980–2024
Designed by James Brook for the exhibition Gareth Fisher Sculpture in Plaster 1980–2024 at Summerhall Lab Gallery, Edinburgh, 8 March – 6 April 2025
Photography by John McKenzie
Paperback with flaps | 205 x 160 mm | 32 pages | Printed by Gomer Print, Wales, on 150 gsm Munken Lynx Rough with cover printed on 300 gsm Munken Lynx Rough
It was an absolute pleasure to work with the artist (and President of the Royal Scottish Academy), Gareth Fisher, on the design of this catalogue for his exhibition at Summerhall – the former Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies of the University of Edinburgh. The exhibition is a retrospective of wonderful sculptures that span a practice of more than 50 years; working in plaster has been a continuous thread throughout it.
Collaborating closely with Gareth from the very start of the project, I suggested that he commission the brilliant photographer John McKenzie to take images of his work, as I thought the book would feel more cohesive if all the sculptures were photographed consistently, in the same space, and with the same light. The sculptures were photographed against a grey background, painted by Gareth, and are beautifully lit to reveal the delicate detail of each work.
The book is designed with a generous amount of white space and the typography is pared back, with discreet captions and no page numbers or other distracting details. It is typeset in Skolar Latin, a classic book typeface that has some subtle twists that reveal a human touch, echoing the hand of the artist in these plaster sculptures. These quirky, typographic details become more apparent at a larger scale – such as on the exhibition posters that I also designed, based on the design of the cover of the book.
The book is printed on Munken Lynx Rough, an uncoated natural white paper with a very tactile feel. Having looked at several options for paper with the artist, we selected this one as the colour and soft texture felt appropriate for a book of plaster sculptures. The cover is printed on the same material with no laminate – although not as durable, the trade-off is that the cover retains the soft texture of the paper. It was printed by Gomer, in Wales, using LE-UV inks – specially formulated inks that dry instantly under ultraviolet light, meaning more of the colour stays on the surface, giving a far superior result to conventional litho printing.
Gareth’s exhibition in the Lab Gallery was conceived as a complete installation, using the original glass display cabinets of the veterinary school to both protect and highlight the delicate and fragile surfaces of the sculptures, and using specially installed lighting to dramatically light them. It was important for the artist to include installation shots as a record of the exhibition – so the bulk of the book was colour proofed ahead of the installation, with placeholder images for the missing installation shots.
Once the installation was complete, John McKenzie took photographs on Friday 7 March, ahead of the opening on 8 March. The images were processed over the weekend then dropped in to place in the book, with the final artwork sent to the printers on Monday 10 March. Gomer Print did a fantastic job of turning the book around very quickly – LE-UV inks are, thankfully, very fast-drying allowing sheets to be folded as soon as they are printed – and the book arrived as early as was possible in the run of the exhibition.
Below are the two versions of the posters that I designed, following the design and layout of the cover of the book.
Below is one of my favourite works in the exhibition, The Hand, 2010, and the caption that I designed that accompanied it in the exhibition.
As well as image captions, I also designed text panels for the exhibition.
Gareth Fisher: Designed beautifully by James Brook, who was a sensitive, perceptive and magnificent support in the production of this important publication. James is an excellent designer with sensitivity to your aspirations. A pleasure to work with.