In the autumn of 2024 I was invited to do a brief residency at 7L library, the former studio of Karl Largerfeld that houses his 33 thousand books. 

I wanted to make something that played to the feeling of children’s books (that I couldn’t seem to find any of in the collection), of things coming alive, and not quite making sense. So I took along my 10x12 box camera, paper negatives and started photographing the books as things: landscapes, houses, walls, boxes to hide in, the sea… 

I then double-exposed these with images I found on the pages (sometimes more than one). Many from the beautiful photography special of Arts et Metiers published in the 30s. The result - turned into paper positives and hand-coloured back in the studio - each became something like a flicker or beginning of a story. 

And in a small book called ‘1 walked out of 2 and forgot it’ by Toby McLennan I found another series of vignettes and those words lent me the title ‘a pocket of their own shape’.

The work was exhibited in the space in January 2025 and in London in June.

The leporello made by Fishbar in a limited edition of 350 copies specially for the event is also available on the Fishbar site.

Thanks to Coralie Gaultier for the commission, Lucie Carrere and Kaduri Elyashar for helping in the space and Philipp Ebeling for designing and making the book!