A Shrine to Aphrodite successfully translates the ‘mirror works’ by German artist Philipp Gufler into book form. Where Gufler normally screen-prints on mirrors, here he has screen-printed sixteen different pigments onto sixteen different reflective sheets. To anyone familiar with the large scale of the artist’s work, is must be surprising to suddenly be able to leaf through the works.
The typography of the text sections, which dance in circles and spirals across the pages and are at least as idiosyncratic in terms of the font chosen – unparalleled in this respect among all the submissions received in fact – contrasts extremely effectively with the reflective sheets. These warm, strange letters lend a more personal, accessible touch to the industrial feel of the metallic-style plates.
In terms of production, it is striking that considerable amount of ink is allowed to transfer from the screen-prints onto the pages opposite. The jury found the decision to not prevent this a weak one: this transfer of ink may hint at the special pigments used for the screen-printing, but some inserted or bound form of protection would have underlined the expressive fragility of the work.
Nevertheless, A Shrine to Aphrodite is a book that, thanks to its fluid, anti-design look, urges us to think differently about how a book can be made – and is therefore a Best Dutch Book Design.