The HSE School of Design Gallery at the Winzavod opens the exhibition “The Art of the Book. Fr om Sign to Media” — a new project from the cycle dedicated to modern design and new principles of visual communication.

 If the previous exhibition of the cycle — “The Art of the Book. School, Publishing House, Community” — considered the book as a cultural phenomenon and a space for interaction between authors, publishers, and readers, then the new project addresses its internal structure. The focus is on the book as an integral visual structure in which typography, composition, sequence of spreads and material characteristics form its image. 

The exhibition offers a look at the book not only as a text carrier, but also as an independent art form. Through projects by students and graduates of the HSE School of Design, the exhibition explores how the graphic language and structure of the publication influence the reader's experience, and design becomes a way of organizing meaning and a form of visual thinking.  

"Working with a book today is a way to slow down, focus, pay tribute to one's own interests, and return to oneself. A book remains a special object wh ere form and meaning are inseparable, and interacting with it becomes an experience of personal attachment and attention. This is why someone who chooses a paper book is often not just a reader, but a bibliophile. In an effort to understand the nature of this attachment and its visual language, we have created this exhibition," says Evgeny Korneev, the exhibition's curator.

The exhibition introduces the main structural elements of the book, which are revealed in six sections with the same name: "Sign", "Strip", "Page", "Block", "Object", and "Media". The sections are arranged in a sequence that allows you to see how the individual elements of the book—the sign, the strip, and the page—combine to create a cohesive object and means of communication. 
Each thematic section is accompanied by a contemporary art piece that offers an original interpretation of book forms and standards. These works, created by artists and professors from the Contemporary Art Department at the HSE School of Design, expand the boundaries of the traditional concept of a book.