OK-RM creates stunning book designs that celebrate one artist's fascination with sailor suits

The book is published by InOtherWords, an imprint founded by Oliver Knight and Rory McGrath of OK-RM in 2015, and presents Capitán's paintings, large-scale photographs, and artist-embellished found objects. These work together to explore the iconic sailor suit outfit visually.

"Our practice is interested in performative frameworks to understand and explore the relationship between content and context," says OK-RM. "When an artist like Coco's work is taken into 'white cube scenario', it takes on another very different reading. Here the form of the book – which is designed as a standard exhibition catalogue which is already archived – examines how context affects content and our understanding of a work."

Two young children sit on the wooden deck of a sailboat beside white railings, one holding a blue bucket over the other's head near the ocean

Stylised portrait painting by Coco Capitán of a bare-chested figure wearing white shorts and burgundy socks, standing against a geometric background of beige and maroon squares with wooden floorboards below

As the book was created as a book "object" rather than a straight-up exhibition catalogue, the layout is primarily guided by the art exhibition in-situ, as it was installed.

As such, the works are shown at different scales on the pages just as they would be in real life, with fold-out pages used for the larger works. For works that were originally displayed in a vitrine, the colour and closer placement of the book have been adapted to underline the shift in the mode of presentation.

Four dark brown book covers each displaying a single framed photograph or artwork positioned at different locations on the page, designed by OK-RM for Coco Capitán's Naïvy exhibition catalogue

Portrait painting by Coco Capitán of a person with long dark hair wearing a striped black and white jacket over a white shirt, against a cream background

The idea of an archive object is further underscored by the outer cover, which represents a library binding that encompasses the publication mounted inside, which uses slightly translucent paper stock. These pages mark a beautiful contrast to the luxe, shiny finish of the glossier paper for the plates, which enables very high-quality photographic reproduction.

Each book is unique since the front features a selection of stickers in various configurations taken from Capitán's series of works titled Where did the sailor get lost? 2010 - 2020. These underscore the artist's longterm fascination with the navy and naval insignia and the sense of adventure, community, but also isolation within those.

Black cover of Naïvy book by Coco Capitán designed by OK-RM, featuring two photographs mounted on the front with gold foil text on spine and cover

Open book spread showing two black and white photographs by Coco Capitán, one of a woman reclining in a chair and one lying on grass, mounted on white pages

While the artist's previous books have used red heavily in their designs, OK-RM deliberately steered clear of this, installing using blue and white fo the inner title page as a further underscoring the navy theme.

"The most important projects to us have always thrived on a level of collaboration directed around a shared vision and set of values; it's our belief that working with an artist/collaborator directly informs the quality, intimacy and poignancy of the final book," says OK-RM. "Within this space, decisions can be taken quickly, communication is direct, and ideas are considered from ultimate ambitions of authenticity and distinctively – essentially content-centric perspectives – counter to the all too often technocratic goals of large publishing houses and institutions."

Two dark brown book covers featuring white-bordered photographs: a portrait of a person on the left cover and a figure lying on grass wearing blue on the right cover

Open book showing cream left page and dark navy right page with Coco Capitán and Naïvy title in white typography, with a white star above

The studio adds: "The conception of InOtherWords ties into a broader philosophy of OK-RM, one based in the constant questioning of the boundaries of our practice into a propositional position that operates across disciplines and into culture at large.

"This is not counter to the treasured history and tradition of craft but is an acknowledgement of the emerging structures and opportunities that our context presents, and an excitement about the potential for design to shape it."