Designbolaget’s striking, conceptual monograph for filmmaker Ulrik Heltoft

Copenhagen-based design studio Designbolaget has produced a conceptual new monograph for Danish video artist Ulrik Heltoft, showcasing eight of his films in the deliciously designed black and white tome.

Claus and Swiss designer Isabel Seiffert lay the monograph out cleanly yet conceptually: double page spreads and single page crops are imaginatively overlapped from time to time in an effort to compare, juxtapose and sequence the filmic imagery. The timeline is deconstructed through abridgement and composition to demonstrate what the studio calls, “the repetitions and the animations in video.”

Claus Due, creative director and studio founder, worked closely with Ulrik Heltolf in discussing how best to showcase and communicate his enigmatic and illusory works in a new mode, through printed matter. “We came to the conclusion that showing video art in a book was not possible, so instead of showing the usual stills we would focus on the essentials in his work,” explains Claus.

Cinematic shots are richly reproduced in tones of black and grey on white, capturing in striking depth the minute details and grain of the filmic image. “The use of black and silver as the only colours, refers to Ulrik’s colour grading of the videos and the silver nose he wears in the role of Tycho Brahe in his most recent film,” explains the studio.

“Every element and decision in this publication is based on the artist’s work—from the choice of the typeface to removing page numbers and captions with the actual time codes of the frames,” says Designbolaget.

The monograph even comes with a black vinyl housed in a screen printed sleeve, featuring a newly edited version of the soundtrack to the videos.