A METICULOUS PROCESS OF CONFIGURATION
Cady Noland is an American sculptor, printmaker, and installation artist who primarily works with found objects and appropriated images.
Cady Noland is an American sculptor, printmaker, and installation artist who primarily works with found objects and appropriated images.
In conjunction with the opening of her new exhibition at Gagosian, the gallery published Cady Noland: Polaroids 1986–2024. This 118-page monograph offers unique insight into Noland's sculptural process, featuring Polaroids she took while developing her work over four decades.
The book offers readers a voyeuristic glimpse into the behind-the-scenes social lives of Noland’s curated objects, presenting them outside their usual museum, gallery, or collector’s home contexts. Although people are absent, the Polaroids evoke an unsettling sense of presence or imminent arrival, creating an anxious and mysterious atmosphere through their sequencing and pairings.
THE PACKAGING
For the project, we adopted the Polaroid image's signature square format. Inspired by Polaroid’s packaging – specifically the black and white PZ600 Square – we designed an outer carton box with the book sealed inside a silver foil wrapper, closely echoing original Polaroid film packaging.
THE BOOK
The iconic “Polaroid film gloss” inspired the cover. When unwrapped, the book reveals a simple black title on a distressed background, printed on high-gloss white paper stock. Measuring 10x10 inches, the book simulates the classic Polaroid 600 square image area.
To reflect the evolution of the Polaroid logo, we selected Untitled Sans, a neo-grotesque typeface intentionally designed to appear plain and unremarkable. We customized it with a distressed, photocopied effect, referencing the art featured in the Polaroids. This style was also applied in other parts of the book.
The text layout features two columns set on a 0.25” grid, offset to the upper right, yielding columns 3.75” wide and 7.75” tall with a 0.25” gutter within a 0.75” square-based grid.
Without any text, the book’s interior becomes a series of Polaroid images. A collection of Polaroids was meticulously arranged, retouched, or manipulated according to the artist’s instructions.
THE SPECIFICATIONS
The 118-page book, featuring 92 illustrations, is printed in 4/c with spot satin varnish on the Polaroid images using Magno Matt 200 gsm paper. It has a black-and-white softcover made from Fedrigoni Splendorlux 2HG 300 gsm paper, double-pasted to 600 gsm, and is swiss bound with Brillianta 4001 white cloth on the spine. The font used is Untitled Sans. Color separations by Die Keure, Bruges, Belgium, and printing by Pureprint Group, Uckfield, UK.
ISBN: 978-1-951449-95-7