‘A Space of Continuous Experimentation’: How the HSE ART GALLERY Explores the Art of the Book

The HSE Art and Design School Gallery at the Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art has opened the exhibition ‘The Art of the Book. From Sign to Media.’ The project invites visitors to see the book not merely as a vehicle for text but as an independent artistic form with its own typography, composition, structure, and materiality. The exhibition runs from July 7 to August 25, 2026.

The codex—a stack of sheets bound together along one edge—is one of humanity’s most successful inventions. Over the centuries, it has evolved alongside technology, society, and culture: from handwritten manuscripts to printed books, and from libraries to digital media. Today, as digital formats have largely assumed the role of storing and transmitting information, the printed book is increasingly valued not only as a source of text but also as an object of personal engagement, slow reading, and visual experience.

This is precisely the focus of ‘The Art of the Book. From Sign to Media,’ the latest instalment in the HSE ART GALLERY’s series devoted to contemporary design and new approaches to visual communication. While the previous exhibition in the series explored the book as a cultural phenomenon and a space for interaction between authors, publishers, and readers, the new exhibition turns its attention to the book’s internal structure, examining how the sign, page, spread, block, object, and medium together shape its identity.

The exhibition is curated by Liudmila Ershova, Head of the Typography and Book Design track at the HSE Art and Design School; Evgeny Korneev, Academic Supervisor of the Book Art master’s specialisation at the HSE Art and Design School; and Margarita Esenkova, Lecturer at the Art and Design School.

According to Margarita Esenkova, one of the exhibition’s defining features is that a significant part of the display consists of student projects. In her view, these works reveal the book in a state of experimentation, where authors are free to explore different materials, compositions, structures, and modes of presentation.

Margarita Esenkova

© Mikhail Dmitriev / HSE University

‘Student projects are always a space of continuous experimentation,’ Margarita Esenkova said. She added that such works often introduce ideas that later find their way into professionally published and commercially produced books. According to her, the exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to understand ‘the direction in which the book as a medium is developing’ and how a new generation of designers perceives it.

The exhibition is organised as a journey from the simplest element of the book to its most complex form. Visitors move from the sign—the smallest unit of visual language—to the book as a medium capable of conveying information, meaning, and the author’s perspective. The exhibition is divided into six sections: Sign, Page, Spread, Block, Object, and Media. Together, these sections quite literally deconstruct the book into its constituent parts, demonstrating how individual elements come together to create a coherent whole.

Margarita Esenkova explained that the works in each section were selected to illustrate its central idea as fully as possible. For example, the Spread section features books with striking compositional solutions, unconventional page layouts, and a particular emphasis on the double-page spread as an independent design unit. The Page section focuses on the main text block, examining its structure, density, tone, visual weight, and typographic choices.

Through projects created by students and graduates of the HSE Art and Design School, the exhibition demonstrates that a book can be not only a means of reading but also a means of research. Some authors explore the history of urban neighbourhoods and archival collections, while others examine twentieth-century disasters, industrial themes, ancient civilisations, and the work of artists. In every case, design is presented not as the decoration of a finished text but as a tool for thinking.

Polina Zherebtsova

© Mikhail Dmitriev / HSE University

Polina Zherebtsova, second-year student of the Master’s programme ‘Art of the Book,’ is exhibiting four projects. They include an encyclopaedia of Moscow’s Belyayevo district, originally created as her undergraduate graduation project, as well as several experimental works produced during her master’s studies: a large-format newspaper about typewriting, a book on the history of paper boats, and a small-scale study devoted to the Belyayevo Library.

She describes the Belyayevo Encyclopaedia as the most ambitious of her projects. Her later works focus on subjects of personal interest: researching typewriting, collecting materials on paper boats, and working with the library’s archival catalogue cards. ‘Taking part in the exhibition helps you grow and develop. You begin to realise that other people will see your work, and that is incredibly valuable,’ she said.

Elizaveta Makedonskaya

© Mikhail Dmitriev / HSE University

Elizaveta Makedonskaya, second-year student of the Art of the Book programme, is presenting three projects: Chernobylnik, which explores the disaster at the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in April 1986; Hibakusha, devoted to the bombing of Hiroshima; and a book based on the letters of Rainer Maria Rilke.

According to Elizaveta, everything began with the subject of Chernobyl, which became the first in-depth research project in her creative practice. She wanted to understand how the disaster occurred, what was said about it, what remained unspoken, and which historical documents had been preserved. She later turned to Hiroshima after receiving an assignment to create a ‘transforming book,’ and found that the story of the city before and after the bombing perfectly suited that concept.

‘I wanted to carry out a kind of small-scale investigation and discover something new for myself,’ Elizaveta Makedonskaya said. She explained that work on a book usually begins with identifying the key source material and developing a prototype. Only then does it become clear which texts, images, and types of information will be needed for the final publication. Sometimes, she added, research continues alongside the layout and design process.

Sofia Eristavi, second-year student of the Art of the Book programme, is exhibiting four works. They include her graduation project ‘USSR: The State of the Working People’, 76/81, a book about KamAZ, a project devoted to ancient Khwarazm, and a publication about the artist Saul Steinberg.

Sofia Eristavi

© Mikhail Dmitriev / HSE University

Sofia explained that she is particularly drawn to subjects that still leave room for discovery. She enjoys ‘delving into areas that have not yet been widely explored’ and using not only text but also visual language to reveal her subject matter more fully.

She described finding the right visual style as the most challenging stage of the creative process. ‘There is always the temptation to produce something classical, universal, and suitable for everything, but there is also something wonderful about discovering the distinctive character of a particular subject,’ Sofia said. She is currently working on a new project with the author Mikhail Kapanaga. The forthcoming book will explore an unusual subject and feature a complex physical structure.

‘The Art of the Book. From Sign to Media’ demonstrates that the printed book is not disappearing in the digital age but is instead taking on a new role. It is becoming a space for experimentation, personal research, and visual expression. Text, image, typography, paper, binding, and methods of construction work together, enabling the book to remain a distinctive cultural object.

The exhibition can be visited at the HSE ART GALLERY at the Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art, located at 1/8, building 6, 4th Syromyatnichesky Pereulok (Entrance C8, 2nd floor). The gallery is open Tuesday–Sunday from 12 pm to 8 pm. Entry is free, but prior registration is required.

Text by Polina Almakaeva, third-year student of the HSE Bachelor’s Programme in Advertising and Public Relations