Close-up of yellow-green blind embossing with organic-looking shapes, hooks, rings and chains.

Mercury Garden

When does attraction become unease?

Context

Simone Karl’s eponymous cycle of sculptures, installations, and collages draws on organic forms while using industrial materials, jewellery, hooks, chains, and spikes. Her works oscillate between attraction and defence: what appears familiar and seductive from a distance can become unsettling or threatening on closer inspection. The publication brings together this body of work in the context of Karl’s 2023/24 scholarship at the Trittauer Wassermühle.

Approach

The publication translates this tension between attraction and unease into the experience of the book itself. A toxic yellow-green runs through the publication, shifting between seductive intensity and a sense of warning. For the cover, individual elements from Karl’s sculptures are isolated and blind-embossed across the surface. Removed from their original context, they initially resemble organic forms or botanical specimens; only on closer inspection do their industrial origins become apparent. Inside, quiet, spacious layouts give the works room to stand on their own, while intensely coloured image sequences introduce moments of visual tension.

Yellow-green “Quecksilbergarten” cover with blind-embossed forms of chains, hooks and other sculpture elements.
Open “Quecksilbergarten” publication with a yellow-green embossed cover and restrained white title page.
Close-up of yellow-green blind embossing with organic-looking shapes, hooks, rings and chains.
For the cover, we selected individual elements from Simone Karl’s complex installations. Isolated, they transform into mysterious, plant-like objects—an interplay with the book’s title—offering a tactile and abstract interpretation of her work.
Embossed yellow-green contents panel with small bilingual titles and page numbers between the shapes.
On the back of the cover, these elements transform into a table of contents, referencing the individual works collected in this publication.
White “Quecksilbergarten” spread with narrow text columns and a bilingual essay.
Book spread featuring a sculpture of glass vessels, yellow liquid and metal elements against white.
Full-spread photograph of a hanging installation of chains, pointed wires and black supports.
Yellow-green tinted spread showing workshop views, tools and sculpture details.
Full-spread exhibition photograph with white doors, a yellow-green doorway and a metal installation on a wooden floor.
Book spread with three elongated red hanging sculptures and a small artwork caption on the right.
Yellow-green spread with a close-up of connected metal rings, chains and clasps.
Project Title
Mercury Garden
Client
Simone Karl
Year
2024
Services
Editorial Design
Role
Concept Development, Design, Project Lead, Production Coordination
Graphic Design
Sarah Fricke, Lea Sievertsen, Pawel Wolowitsch (Distaff Studio)
Photography
Jens Franke
Publisher
Cord Oltmanns Verlag
Printing
Gutenberg Beuys Feindruckerei
Typefaces
Signifier by Klim Typefaces