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Something Like Dancing, 2024
Publication Design
Artist/Author: Jacqui Shelton
Editor: Tim Coster
Designer: Xinyuan (Caesar) Li
Published by 3-ply, 2024
ISBN 978-0-6483942-3-5
Softcover, 150 x 214 mm, 52pp + 6 inserts, laser print
First edition of 82
Photography: Rohan Hutchinson, Lloyd Mst
"Something Like Dancing is a one-on-one performance work that can be performed in quiet spaces such as a home, a studio, a park bench, or a library. Over the course of three sittings, a participant in the work will be taught to recite three stories by heart. As a book, Something Like Dancing is a collection of short essays and conversations that have come to be the only document of this one-on-one performance work that I performed over a period of five years. Many of these essays started as chapters of a PhD I wrote on the work, but in the intervening years have come to read much closer to how I speak. I don’t dance professionally but I love to do so with friends – the same could be said for art." -JS
︎︎︎About the Design
The ephemeral, intimate, and poetic qualities of the performance art were central themes when Jacqui and I first chatted about this project over coffee. This led me to think deeply about how to visually express the fragility of narratives, the fleeting nature of memory, and the subtle tensions between communicators.
These themes are conveyed through the interaction between the cover and dust jacket, where the characters gently blend into the background, fading with each page turn. The use of translucent, thin paper creates a layered effect, allowing text to overlap, intertwine, or even disappear under soft light, shifting with changes in time, environment, and weather.
The A5 format, paired with elements like clips, scribbles, handwritten scripts, simple print methods, and handmade bindings—common, almost modest forms—reinforces a sense of intimacy. The varied typeface usage, while sometimes unexpected and awkward, coalesces in a way that mirrors the nuanced balance of dialogue, echoing the conversational nature of the performance.
The combination of diverse materials, separate appendices, and varied visual forms and colors creates a publication that encapsulates the multifaceted nature of the performance—poised between the ephemeral and the enduring, the formal and the informal.
- Xinyuan (Caesar) Li
︎ Purchase
Something Like Dancing, 2024
Publication Design
Artist/Author: Jacqui Shelton
Editor: Tim Coster
Designer: Xinyuan (Caesar) Li
Published by 3-ply, 2024
ISBN 978-0-6483942-3-5
Softcover, 150 x 214 mm, 52pp + 6 inserts, laser print
First edition of 82
Photography: Rohan Hutchinson, Lloyd Mst
"Something Like Dancing is a one-on-one performance work that can be performed in quiet spaces such as a home, a studio, a park bench, or a library. Over the course of three sittings, a participant in the work will be taught to recite three stories by heart. As a book, Something Like Dancing is a collection of short essays and conversations that have come to be the only document of this one-on-one performance work that I performed over a period of five years. Many of these essays started as chapters of a PhD I wrote on the work, but in the intervening years have come to read much closer to how I speak. I don’t dance professionally but I love to do so with friends – the same could be said for art." -JS
︎︎︎About the Design
The ephemeral, intimate, and poetic qualities of the performance art were central themes when Jacqui and I first chatted about this project over coffee. This led me to think deeply about how to visually express the fragility of narratives, the fleeting nature of memory, and the subtle tensions between communicators.
These themes are conveyed through the interaction between the cover and dust jacket, where the characters gently blend into the background, fading with each page turn. The use of translucent, thin paper creates a layered effect, allowing text to overlap, intertwine, or even disappear under soft light, shifting with changes in time, environment, and weather.
The A5 format, paired with elements like clips, scribbles, handwritten scripts, simple print methods, and handmade bindings—common, almost modest forms—reinforces a sense of intimacy. The varied typeface usage, while sometimes unexpected and awkward, coalesces in a way that mirrors the nuanced balance of dialogue, echoing the conversational nature of the performance.
The combination of diverse materials, separate appendices, and varied visual forms and colors creates a publication that encapsulates the multifaceted nature of the performance—poised between the ephemeral and the enduring, the formal and the informal.
- Xinyuan (Caesar) Li
︎ Purchase
Moments Captured from the Book Launch.