Null & Void Books – förlag

Märta Thisner is one of Sweden’s most prominent photographers. Image-search her name and you’ll find a cross-section of recent cultural figures from the worlds of dance, music and literature. Her portraits have an immediate readability, a refined contrast between a careful gaze and the brutal contours of her flash, which seems equally suited to rock and poetry as it does to still-lifes with glass sculptures.
This is how she first came into contact with Åsa Jungnelius — at a photo shoot for the Public Luxury exhibition at Arkdes in 2018. Jungnelius is one of the most respected designers and artists in the country, constantly renegotiating the relationship between the two forms. Although glass is her primary element, Jungnelius’ work is to be considered contemporary art, with its integral parts of social commentary and criticism. Mussels is a portrait of Jungnelius in her natural habitat 2018–2024. Thisner is present as the seeds are being sown in the studio and when they’re harvested in the garden in Månsamåla or at the glass- works in Kosta. In the photographs: a not-quite-feral cat, a thinned forest, a unique sculpture with an inner universe. The living encounter the withered, the everyday is visited by the sublime and braided together with ropes of many colors. Openness prevails. The unpaginated pages might seem random or like fragments of memory. Close your eyes and they are still there. What do we remember? What lingers is reformulated over time and assembled in new sequences. In an infinity, relative to life. In the book there is also a poem by the Swedish writer Tone Schunnesson. Märta Thisner is a Stockholm-based photographer. Since finishing photography school in Stockholm and in the UK, she has developed a noticeable aesthetic while capturing some of Sweden's most captivating personalities. Märta's ability to capture a moment has made her a sought-after photographer in many industries, both commercial and creative. She approaches her subjects with respect and empowerment, highlighting their most human and sympathetic features while creating immersive portraits. Märta Thisner has previously published Baby (puss Publications & Sailor Press, 2023) and Drunk in Love (Journal, 2019).

This book contains a selection of about 700 poster variations made for MDT, Moderna Dansteatern (the Modern Dance Theatre), during a period of ten years. Situated in central Stockholm on the Skeppsholmen island, MDT presents and co-produces dance, choreography and performance, festivals, talks and seminars. The work was commissioned by Danjel Andersson (director 2010–2019) as part of an overall system for the graphic design and communications. The world around the posters has changed since the first one was made, while the poster remained the same for almost a decade. Regardless of everything in motion, the image of MDT became an unaffected fixture. A benefit of leaving things unchanged is that it can function as an anchor in time, perhaps establishing a position where even a subtle difference is made visible? This is the first release of the publishing project Grafisk Fyrkant [Graphic Square], an imprint of Null & Void Books, inspired by the Danish association and publisher Grafisk Cirkel [Graphic Circle] (1936 –1979) whose books were often printed in small formats and limited editions by and for graphic designers. Similarly, Grafisk Fyrkant is interested in how ideas are transformed via printed matter. Jonas Williamsson (Umeå, 1973) grew up in a prospering counterculture environment in the peripheral north. In 1999 he graduated from Konstfack and same year co-founded the graphic design studio Reala with classmate Samuel Nyholm and Swiss colleague Laurent Benner. They worked together on commissions until 2007, developing their signature pong-pong aesthetics, while teaching and exhibiting in Sweden and abroad. Since 2008 he is running his own practice focusing on graphic design for artists and institutions. He designed the graphic identities for After Shopping, with Reala (2001); Konst2, with Reala and Andreas och Fredrika (2004); Tensta Konsthall, with Reala and Karl Holmqvist (2004); Iaspis Forum for Design and Critical Practice, with Martin Frostner (2009); MDT (2011); the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, with Rikard Heberling (2020). The MDT project has been acknowledged twice in the Association of Swedish Illustrators and Graphic Designers’ Kolla! award (2012 ⁄ 2020). Williamsson’s book work has been awarded with Swedish Book Art awards, Kolla!, and the Best Books of the Year by the Danish Association of Book Crafts.

Göteborgs Konsthall – en hundraårig konsthistoria tar avstamp i 1800-talets Europa då konstutställningar för allmänheten etablerades, via Jubileumsutställningen i Göteborg 1923 då konsthallen öppnade, och för oss ända fram till pandemiåret 2020.  Boken skildrar hur olika konstnärliga, samhälleliga och politiska rörelser har påverkat verksamheten och hur Göteborgs Konsthall i sin tur har påverkat konsten, samhället och politiken. I denna cirkelrörelse framträder konstnärer, konstverk, människor som arbetat på konsthallen, men också synen på konsten, på besökaren och pedagogiken, den nationella och regionala kulturpolitikens framväxt, staden Göteborgs utveckling – men framförallt Göteborgs Konsthalls betydelse under 100 år. –  Det är med stolthet som vi nu kan lyfta fram några av de oändligt många och betydande möten mellan konst, konstnärer och publik som konsthallen möjliggjort genom åren, säger Ann-Sofi Roxhage, chef för Göteborgs Konsthall. – Med den kunskap och de nya perspektiv som denna bok fört med sig ser vi nu fram emot att ta nästa steg i Göteborgs Konsthalls historia. Unik historieskrivning Göteborgs Konsthall – en hundraårig konsthistoria är skriven av Andréas Hagström tillsammans med flera inbjudna författare. Andréas Hagström har under drygt 20 år på Göteborgs Konsthall byggt upp ett fysiskt och digitalt arkiv över konsthallens historia. Detta material har nu vidareutvecklats och utgör en unik historieskrivning som också inkluderar flera författarröster som bidrar med fördjupning, analys och utblickar. Maria Görts beskriver konstföreningarnas och konsthallarnas etablering i Europa under 1800-talet; Louise Wolthers skriver om den första stora internationella fotoutställningen i Göteborg 1929; Kajsa Widegren om kön och representation utifrån konsthallens historia och Martin Gustavsson om konsthallens materiella förutsättningar, Baumols dilemma och organisatorisk glömska. Lisa Rosendahl har bjudit in en rad konstnärer från olika generationer att ge sin syn på Göteborgs Konsthall och avslutningsvis reflekterar konsthallens konstnärliga ledare Stina Edblom och utställningsintendent Liv Stoltz över konsthallens verksamhet idag och i framtiden. Göteborgs Konsthall – en hundraårig konsthistoria Författare: Andréas Hagström m fl  Förlag: Null & Void Books  Grafisk form: Jonas Williamsson Fotografi: Peo Olsson

Moderna Museet exhibition catalogue no. 416: Björn Lövin -The Surrounding Reality Co-publishers: Moderna Museet & Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König Texts: Gitte Ørskou, Matilda Olof-Ors, Rasmus Fleischer, Maria Lind & Helena Mattsson. Curator: Matilda Olof-Ors Concept and Editorial Work: Matilda Olof-Ors, Jonas Williamsson & Peo Olsson Design: Jonas Williamsson Photography: Albin Dahlström, Mats B, Ayao Yamazaki. Print: Narayana Press. About the exhibition: Björn Lövin -The Surrounding Reality Moderna Museet 2.4 – 18.9 2022 Stockholm With carefully chosen details, Björn Lövin (1937–2009) built up fictional worlds, like film sets, which the visitor could step into. In the exhibition “The Surrounding Reality”, three of Björn Lövin’s extensive environments have been reconstructed. Then, as now, visitors can enter the environments themselves and experience the art from up close. None of Björn Lövin’s original environments were preserved after being presented in their respective exhibitions in the 1970s and 1980s. The environments that you can see now in the exhibition are thus reconstructions interpreting and recreating a similar atmosphere as when the works were first shown. Extensive and winding research has been required to build up the environments. Based on photographs, films and archive documents, objects have been identified. These are the three environments that you will encounter in the exhibition: Consumer in Infinity and “Mr P’s hoard”, L’image and C – The struggle for reality. Curator: Matilda Olof-Ors About Björn Lövin Björn Lövin expanded traditional art genres and was one of the first Swedish artists in the late 1960s to make spatial installations, called environments at the time. He was born in Falun in 1937. In his youth Lövin studied in Barcelona, later attending Stockholm University and Uppsala University to study education, scientific theory and information technology. Despite his lack of formal artistic training, he had his first exhibition at Galleri Mejan in 1970, an early version of the more comprehensive exhibition Consumer in Infinity and “Mr P’s Hoard” – two environments by Björn Lövin that was presented at Moderna Museet the following year. His large scale works were critical to totalitarian systems, ranging from the People’s Home (Folkhemmet) to the consumption society, which includes some and excludes others and attract by offering an image of safety, but at the cost of individual freedom. His first solo show at Moderna Museet was curated by Pontus Hultén and later included solo shows at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Liljevalchs and Kulturhuset in Stockholm and at Malmö Konsthall amongst others.

The photograph in the book is reproduced in two versions: one closer to its analogue origin and one where the image has remained longer in the digital materiality - an additional digital space, created by the artist. The silver grains in the film base of the photograph can easily be experienced on the outside of the pages, as the traces of the digital ones and zeroes in the hyper-digital version are almost inaccessible on the inside of the folded pages. To form a third layer, these two images are impossible to see in their complete state, the pages show only cuts. What is visible is a 100% reproduction, cropped by the size of the book page. By showing two different representations of the same photograph in this way, the artist wants to match his working process and the experiences from engaging with the book as medium. It is in the tension between either or and both that the book is formed, a space where Betshammar likes to work.   However, Despite the Haze You Can Still Get a Concrete Feeling for the Surroundings is a book that wants to encourage resistance and raise questions about the idea of the photobook itself - what and who creates it, and how readers respond. The book includes a short text by Kirsti Taylor Bye, and an even shorter one by Erik Betshammar.   Erik Betshammar (b. 1985) is a Swedish artist and photographer, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Betshammar works in the borderland between digital and analogue photographic technology. His work often consists of photographs, installations and texts, and his sometimes long titles provide an existential entry to his world of thought. He graduated in 2012 with an MFA in photography from the Högskolan för Fotografi (School of Photography) at the University of Gothenburg and has received multiple art grants. He has exhibited his work mainly in Scandinavia.   Kirsti Taylor Bye is a Norwegian artist and photographer. Jonas Williamsson is a Swedish graphic designer based in Stockholm.  Print: Narayana Press Null & Void Books creates books about contemporary phenomena in art and culture. The publishing program is focused on projects made in close collaboration with artists, writers and designers. Null & Void Books acts as foundation for a long-term working-platform for book projects produced and presented in specific contexts. The publications are available at selected bookstores, museums, art book fairs and via the worldwide web. Null & Void Books is based in Lund, Sweden and was started in 2014.