『Rainbow Sherbet』 – (+.+) & <*

Front cover

Rainbow Sherbet

book
2019
offset lithograph, adhesive bound
120 x 189 mm, 208 pp

This book is hard to explain. Or, if this book can be explained by a few words, then you may say that Rainbow Sherbet has failed fundamentally.

The book is ostensibly about the work of Min Guhong Manufacturing, a parasite “corporation” that lives off the publisher and graphic design studio Workroom. Its founder, Min Guhong, is a writer, editor, translator, designer, and a software developer, but probably not in that order. The corporation produces practical and speculative “products,” from video games and computer software to short novels and music playlists. One of the recurring themes of the diverse products is self-reflexivity: after all, many of them are about Min Guhong Manufacturing itself.

The book consists of five chapters. The first chapter shows all the images prepared for the book as small thumbnails in step-and-repeat patterns. The second chapter is the contributors’ essays about the products of Min Guhong Manufacturing, each presented as a “user review.” Here, some of the thumbnails from the previous chapter come back as badges to mark the products. Next, the installation views of the exhibition Rainbow Sherbet are presented, followed by Laurel Schwulst’s interview with Min Guhong. The product-badge thumbnails appear again, along with other reference images similarly inserted in the text, and multi-nested footnotes. Finally, the entire series of first thumbnail patterns return, this time in a large size, to properly illustrate the products (after all, the book is associated with an exhibition).

The format of the book is that of a paperback novel. The cover shows an unknown figure, who was featured in the poster for the exhibition Rainbow Sherbet (designed by Gang Moonsick) for an equally unknown reason. The picture is sized so the figure’s face roughly matches the average face size of Koreans (23.6 cm from the top of the head to the bottom of the jaw). The book can be used as a disguise.

The front cover is set in Time Blank, Min Guhong Manufacturing’s corporate typeface with empty glyphs. Inside the cover, a full script of the video For Your Information (an introduction to the company) is given.