Venezuelan Design, photography, and experimental books

Includes cataloging and database. Feel free to inquire about individual books. 

This selection includes some classics and contemporary materials. We curated this small collection based on the huge impact of Design in the modern landscape. Many of these titles have become big references in Latin American history. Others are rather recent but have experimental formal qualities, short print runs, and valuable content that make them important references for research. 

El Cuerpo que Abrazo. Conversaciones con Fran Beaufrand by Ana Khan (2024) Fran Beaufrand was a photographer born in Maracaibo in 1960. He died in Caracas in 2023. Licensed in visual arts by the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, she started in the mid-1980s, dedicating, primarily to modern photography. His photography can be seen at the Museo del Barrio in New York, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber, Fundacion Noa Noa, Colección Banesco, Museo Alejandro Otero, Museo de Bellas Artes and Galería de Arte Nacional.  

Un Minuto con las Artes Micro Culturales, designed by Alvaro Sotillo (2019)
This book is a platform for cultural talk about the Venezuelan artistic world. This space was created in 2019, which focuses on the fundamental themes and lays the groundwork for the accessibility of aesthetics for the public, which is open to everyone. This is an initiative by Susana Benko, Rafael Castillo Zapata, Alvaro Mata, and Humberto Ortiz.

Coreotopias by Miguel Braceli, an experimental photobook (2017)
The work proposals deployed by Miguel Braceli reveal the nomadic, complex, and gregarious spirit inherent in the scheme of the contemporary world. It deals with the choreography of utopia that bursts over the scene of what is real as a will of the bodies in dialogue with nature.

Latino America Gráfica. Contemporary Graphic Design Compilation. By MASA Colectivo Grafico (2002)
LATINO wishes to fill an existing gap in the graphic-experimental-conceptual reference of all South-Central America from the Tijuana border in Mexico to the Patagonia in Argentina.

Hun by Julia Mejnertsen. Design by Ricardo Baez (2024)
A long-term photographic research about our perception of nature through her mother’s hunting practice. 

Deconstructing Sistema Nervioso de Barbara Brandli. Design by Ricardo Baez (year)
Sistema Nervioso is the most ambitious body of work by Swiss-born Venezuelan photographer Barbara Brändli, who is otherwise known for her documentation of the indigenous Yanomami people. The book is a kind of manifesto, a portrait of the city of Caracas, filled with ads, graffiti and other urban signs. It was published in 1975, a collaboration with screenwriter Román Chalboud and artistic director John Lange, both Venezuelan. The book contains more than 100 images of the city and, due to its innovative complexity, has been recognised as one of the most important works in the photographic genre. Alejandro León Cannock offers an in-depth analysis.

Diseño Grafico en Venezuela by Alfredo Armas Alfonzo (1985)
Sponsored by Maraven, this 2-year project which involved research, replicating, and many interviews, allowed the author to become part of the history of Venezuelan graphic design culture. This book covers a large portion of history from colonial Venezuela, the independence of the nation and material available until 1985. A bibliographical reference from petroculture.