The Weight of the Concrete by Ezio Gribaudo

Description

This publication coincides with the exhibition The Weight of the Concrete by Ezio Gribaudo in a scenography by Davide Stucchi. It is the seventh entry in a series of compact volumes featuring visual contributions, correspondence, responses, and conversations accompanying the Grazer Kunstverein exhibition program.

This volume contains photographic excerpts from Ezio Gribaudo’s series of achromatic embossed “Logogrifi” limited edition books, created between 1965 and 1972. These works challenge the conventional relationship between ink and material in print, using embossing to highlight the tangible process of creating printed matter. One of the key elements of Gribaudo’s work is the “logogrifo” (logogriph), a word puzzle derived from the Greek “logos” (word) and “griphos” (riddle). Typically, the logogriph, or a riddle in verse, involves altering words by adding, removing, or changing one letter at a time to form other words. In Gribaudo’s interpretation, a logogrifo oscillates between legibility and abstraction, serving both as readable forms and as a gateway to an enigmatic world where the image and language, disconnected from their origins, coalesce. This publication, The Weight of the Concrete, features a selection of pages from the “Logogrifi” books, uniquely complemented by an intervention on the back cover by Davide Stucchi as a conceptual and poetic response to its title.