Gato Negro Live with the Archive

A book, you know, is like a fist.

Letterform Archive is proud to present publishers Gato Negro who will discuss their work on manifestos in relationship to their online exhibition at California College of Arts.

The Latin word manifestum can be translated to mean “in plain sight,” “clear,” or “conspicuous.” It is no accident, then, that Mexico-City based publishing house Gato Negro uses bold yet straightforward designs to publish manifestos, both old and new. By “using the least amount of design possible,” as founder Leon Santini describes it, Gato Negro's book designs allow the text to speak for itself, energized and unchallenged.

The exhibition explores how design and distribution can empower the content of a printed or digitally produced text. Gato Negro relies on a Risograph printer to rapidly and inexpensively produce their conceptually weighty books, written by geographically disparate authors. Organized in Spring 2020—whilst we are ordered inside, bound to our homes—this exhibition investigates what new potential these texts might have when rendered in, or reduced to, the digital sphere. Does the malleability and accessibility provided by the web alter the effect of the words on the (digital) page?

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