Vicente Gajardo is a renowned Chilean sculptor who works mostly with stone. This editorial project began as an idea over a decade ago, and in 2018 it involved a trip through Chile to photograph the public works on site. From the quarries of Calama, in the Atacama desert, to the sculptor’s hometown Tomé, the photographer — Alexandre Delmar — was able to wait for the best light, and take pictures under a coherent gaze and artistic direction.
This book was intended as a tribute to Gajardo’s sculptural work. The outer black case that protects it is a symbolic reference to the black granite ever-present in his work. The soft, white paper of the cover and the book block contrasts with the hard, black case. Text and images fill each page almost to the edges, evoking the tension of stone carving.
So too with the exploration of the book, itself a physical task: each page leaf must be cut so the content can be revealed in a slow and careful procedure, so it doesn’t tear, a nod to the care with which the sculptor carves. The book is then manually opened, or ‘sculpted’, producing a rich texture in the printed fore and top edges.
