Jennifer Tee. The Soul in Limbo

Book coverJennifer Tee. The Soul in Limbo
Book coverJennifer Tee. The Soul in Limbo
Book coverJennifer Tee. The Soul in Limbo
Book coverJennifer Tee. The Soul in Limbo

Painter, video artist and choreographer Jennifer Tee has gained a firm reputation for her sculptures, installations and performances with a broad range of underlying references. This book reflects her interest in ‘the soul in limbo’, or ‘being in the intermediate state’. As she puts it herself: ‘The soul in limbo is restless and alive and is caught in a nameless place on the border between here and the possible. This place is a conceptual, mental, psychological and physical space.’

The book certainly radiates restlessness, thanks in part to the frenetic switches between colour and monochrome or the text in the outer margins. Even so, it’s certainly the perfect fit for her work, reflecting the symbiosis between the artist and her designer Richard Niessen. ‘This is a very well-produced book.’ ‘It starts off very loud and exuberant, but happily after a while it eases off.’

 

The Soul in Limbo has the appearance of a portfolio, certainly in the way it’s structured. However, the balance between the exuberance of Tee’s work (see the lettering, which could almost have been created with adhesive tape) and the restraint with which it is presented in this book has been perfectly executed – and with more modesty than we’re used to from Roma Publications. The typography is flexible: ‘Which means you always win as the text fits itself into the decor.’ The tactile ‘feeling’ of an artist book is guaranteed, not least by that soft paper. Not lingering long in limbo, the panel were quickly able to cut the knot: without reservation, this book was worthy of selection.

 

Edition: 2015
Language: English, translated by Jean Tee
Final editor: Jennifer Tee, Hilde de Bruijn, Huan Hsu
Publisher: Roma Publications, Amsterdam
Graphic designer: Niessen & de Vries, Amsterdam (Richard Niessen)
Lithographer: Zwaan Printmedia, Wormerveer
Printer: Zwaan Printmedia, Wormerveer (cover screen-printed in three PMS colours and with opaque white)
Binder: Hexspoor, Boxtel
Size book block (w x h x d in mm): 210 x 280 x 17
Number of pages: 200 p.
Print run: 1,500
Price: € 30
ISBN: 978 94 9184 351 8
Font and foundry: Akzidenz Grotesk (Berthold)
Binding style: sewn soft cover
Material: 100gsm Munken Pure Rough, 130gsm Lessebo Smooth White, 120gsm Rainbow light yellow, 115gsm Cyclus offset (interior), 400gsm grey board smooth on one side (cover)