The Institut■ of C■ntextualism — keithwalsh

THE REDACTED HISTORY OF THE I■STITUTE OF C■NTEXTUALISM

Winner of Best Designed Independent Book at the Australian Book Design Awards, 2017.

Three self-published books presenting an alternate history of an art movement that never existed. Found photographs, fabricated drawings, a spoken word album, altered archive footage, and recovered artworks. Every detail built to feel authentic, down to the typography and the water-damaged pages.

I built a whole ecosystem around them: a website that quietly tracks your IP, a cryptic Instagram account, and a Facebook page full of debates between fictional academics and confused onlookers.

Part Cold War hallucination, part art-world prank. The Institute of Contextualism was built to make people question what's real, what's art, and what happens when you give a myth a website.

Concept · Art Direction · Typography · Publishing & Print Design · Audio Production · Website Design · Social Media Strategy · Brand World-Building

SPREAD FROM CHAPTER 1
This chapter was redacted to remove all the incriminating words, and a second time to remove what was left.

WEBSITE - Links, downloads, sounds etc

A SPREAD FROM CHAPTER 2
Terrible discoveries and altered plans.

The original Redacted History of The Institute of Contextualism launched at the NGV Art Book Fair in 2017. You couldn’t buy it - you had to trade for it.

71 Objects That Were Traded… is a catalogue of everything people offered in return.

SPREAD FROM CHAPTER 2
All the images in the book were found images collected all over the world over a five year period.

VIDEOS - 10 videos based on mid 20th century poetry.

CHAPTER 6
■■■■ met with, ■■■ ■■ ■■■■ reached.

71 Objects That Were Traded… launched at the NGV Art Book Fair in 2018. You couldn’t trade for this one — but one guy insisted.

564 Words About a Man’s Boot tells the story of the only item ever traded for 71 Objects That Were Traded…

A SPREAD OF COVERS
A selection of book covers that were "published" over a 30 year period in the middle of the 20th century.

Sounds - The soundtrack of the Institute

CHAPTER 9
Deeper, ■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■.

A limited edition 1 of 1 box of ephemera and photos that were used in the original book.