As the minds of curators and editors open up to the critical potential of graphic design, books are serving not only to represent works of art according to standards of fidelity, but to actively translate complex installations and hybrid objects into the medium of publishing. Dan Friedman challenged the documentary intentions of exhibition catalogs by mixing photographs of art with seductive media images in his books Cultural Geometry (1988), Artificial Nature (1990), and Post-Human (1992), a series created with curator Jeffrey Deitch for the Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece. Friedman used commercial stock photographs taken from the realms of science, journalism, and advertising as cultural counterpoints for issues explored by artists. [back] © Copyright 1996 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Artificial Nature Book, 1990, offset lithograph Designer: Dan Friedman (1946­1995) Publisher: Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece Collection Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Gift of the Estate of Dan Friedman