Care + Wear
Brand Identity + Art Catalogue >>

Bodies that carry their histories.

CARE + WEAR: Bodies Crafted for Harm + Healing accompanied an exhibition at Esker Foundation featuring objects from the Museum of Fear and Wonder. The collection brought together crafted bodies used for play, professional training, therapy, spectacle and harm. Their worn surfaces, scars and markings had become records of the human actions and experiences they endured.

The book was designed to present these figures as objects with distinct identities and histories. Full views established their physical presence, while carefully selected details revealed the qualities that made them feel unexpectedly human—including a wrestling dummy named “Bill,” whose stamped name appears prominently inside the front cover.

The “+” became the publication’s central visual device, connecting the tensions within the exhibition: body + action, harm + healing, and care + wear. Die-cut plus signs within the French-fold cover framed an artwork and, in the limited edition, held a hand-tinted linocut by Jude Griebel like a set of photo corners.

Archival papers, patterned endpapers and paired serif and sans serif typography connected past and present. From its materials and typography to its die-cuts and folded covers, every detail reinforced the role of craft within both the collection and the book itself.

HDS was responsible for the concept and design through to print and manufacturing.