Dates Doors Then & More is an art project led by John Fekner and Brad Downey in the autumn of 2022, following an invitation by Lunds konsthall. In this project the artists reactivated some of the artworks created by John Fekner in the 1970s and the 1980s. Most of these artworks are unauthorised street stencil paintings made in the streets of Lund. The book is a rendition of this project, featuring interviews, essays, and a large iconography.

To remain conceptualy close to the project, Matthias Hübner designed the cover as a stencil, using the Constructed version of the typeface Chantier (with its own version of the ampersand). The texts, titles and credits are typeset in Chantier Regular and Italic, supplemented by the monospaced version of Timezone.

Documentation of the graffiti and streetart festival which took place from 20th November 2015 to 6th December 2015 at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn.

The German-language publication was edited by Allan Gretzki, Johanna Adam, Matthias Hübner, and Robert Kaltenhäuser, with texts from Rein Wolfs, Allan Gretzki, Robert Kaltenhäuser, Johannes Stahl, Harald Hinz & Patrick Gau. It was published by Possible Books.

Matthias Hübner provided the book design, using Ostia Antica and Totentanz, both from Bureau Brut. See more images on his website.

160 pages, 23 cm×18 cm.

Constructed around a polemical text on the practice of graffiti, the book gathers several theoretical essays on the discipline and its history. The cover, printed in red and metallic chrome, is a play on the time-honoured practice of covering existing graffiti (also called “toying”) and echoes the way the texts all respond to the first document. The composition takes up all the space available on the book cover, as it would on a wall.

The softcover with dust jacket has 352 pages and measures 14×22,5 cm. It was edited by Jo Preußler and Cogitatio•Factum and is in German language. It was published by Possible Books in September 2017.

The cover was designed by Bureau Brut. The typefaces used are our Lebreton and Brut Grotesque on the cover, with Totentanz and Ostia Antica inside.

Enemy Kids by BUS126 was edited by Jo Preußler & Stefan Wartenberg and released by Berlin-based publisher possible books. The soft-bound book measures 115×170 mm and has 104 pages. It is set in HAL Matex. Design by Matthias Hübner, with cover art by Bob Haberfield.

From the publisher’s website:

Graffiti legend, artist and author BUS 126 has been surprising us for decades with ever new forms, techniques and locations for his paintings. In caves, in forests and on the facades of the city, he creates a work consisting of three letters and a number, BUS 126, reaching far beyond graffiti, extending like a root into the most diverse areas of artistic expression.

The original version of ENEMY KIDS was written in 1997 as a reaction to ODEM's "On the Run", the first German-language work of so-called “graffiti literature”, which is, of course, above all an argumentative piece of coming-of-age prose. BUS 126 has two chapters dedicated to him in this book, in which he finds it difficult to find himself. Prompted by the text, which was noticeably formulated by a ghostwriter, he recounts his own view of the West Berlin graffiti scene, of his childhood and youth in Lichtenrade and Marienfeld. Were these beginnings of hip hop and graffiti in Berlin really so glorious and creative? Who were the young men whose lives included graffiti as naturally as violence, drugs and boredom? What was the mood like in the walled-in half of the city?

Finally completed after 25 years, ENEMY KIDS seems like a journey back in time, into a city whose places and street names are familiar to us but which is nevertheless a completely different world. Completely dispensing with name-dropping and glorification, BUS 126 tells of a time without mobile phones and the internet, without video surveillance and graffiti bars. A time in which knives were just as normal a pocket item in certain circles as markers, fights were as natural as surfing the subway and love was as far away as any prospect of ever getting out of it all.

Blurb from the back cover:

Antny Kreeg 47 and his lady-friend Contruh Guerre (pronounced “Country Girl”) had a rent-controlled apartment on the 112th floor (where the players dwell) of the Empire World Trade Twin Towers and they were never heard of again after 9/11. The ideas in this book were buried under the rubble of the buildings and when found they were lifeless, waterboarded and outlawed in America and much of the world. The couple had an illegitimate baby named Phuck Conphormitee and he published this book in his father’s name.
The major question that arises from this book is “are you a conformist and you don’t even realize it?” another one is “has Tricknology got you so twisted that you don’t even know who you are anymore?” One more question could be “just because everybody else jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, is you gonna do it too?” (answers on back)

Published by Possible Books and designed by Anton Sokolowski and Matthias Hübner, the book is set with TheW NYC for titles and SangBleu Republic for the massive textblocks.

TheW NYC and SangBleu Republic are available from Swiss Typefaces.

Using humor, sensitivity, and precise interventions, the American artist Brad Downey investigates the underlying structure of our cities, our landscapes, our sacred sites, as well as the forgotten peripheries and contested borders. In the process he weaves entirely new narratives with their chaotic patterns, obscuring the separation between art and everyday life. Slapstick Formalism presents a synopsis of his overall multifaceted oeuvre: sculptures, architecture, performances, installations, films, drawings, collages, and activism, each of which is inspired by the objects and activities of daily life.

Brad Downey (*1980, Louisville) is a Berlin-based artist from Kentucky. He studied at the Pratt Institute in New York City, and the Slade School of Art in London. His radical, inspiring works of art, which he creates around the world, generally in the public space, are of a strongly socio-critical, performative character.

Artist’s monograph about Brad Downey co-published by Hatje Cantz and Possible Books, designed by Matthias Hübner with Everett and Suisse Works. First edition published in September 2018 (sold out) and second expanded edition published in July 2020.

The publication accompanying the exhibition Planet B – 100 ideas for a new world is a collection of different ideas for a new world – a Planet B. The most visionary artists, designers, architects, writers and futurologists in the world present their political, poetic, odd and radical ideas for a new world. — NRW-Forum

The use of changing layouts, typefaces and font sizes creates a never boring reading experience—almost every page turn surprises. Still, the “navigation bars” on the pages’ sides keep everything together, so the reader won’t get lost. All used fonts are listed in the book’s colophon. Several of them are shown here, and are identified in the respective image captions. The book additionally uses Aileron, Arimo, Astloch, and Junicode (not pictured). See more images on the website of designer Matthias Hübner.

Contributions by Rachel Armstrong, Nelly Ben Hayoun, Ernst Bloch, Stewart Brand, Brad Downey, Kevin Kelly, Ray Kurzweil, Chusz Martínez, Niklas Maak, Lucy McRae, Philippe Rahm, raumlaborberlin, Tomás Saraceno, Space Caviar, Jakob Tigges, Friedrich von Borries and many more.

Published in January 2016 by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König
Editors: Alain Bieber & Lukas Feireiss
17.5×24 cm, 240 pages, softcover
Texts in English and German

The text on the cover and the spine is set in Sporting Grotesque.

Body text set in Sporting Grotesque, with italics from Chivo. The headlines are set in caps from Reglo. The serif used for page numbers and subheads is Old Standard.

The big type on the left page is Autopia.

Steps Mono is used for page references (“N on p. 18 / DE S. 19”).

From top to bottom: Sporting Grotesque Gras (running head), the Latin part of Ume Mincho (underlined), Autopia (headline), Steps Mono (subheading), Sporting Grotesque Normal (body text).

The serif used for the texts on this spread is Bagnard.

In December 2016, German graphic designer Matthias Hübner pitched for the new visual identity of the IKOB, a museum of contemporary art located in Eupen, Belgium. Part of the pitch was the commissioning of a custom typeface, which was planned to be released as an open source license, once it was finished and in use. I was asked to design this typeface as a contemporary rendition of Times New Roman in two cuts: Regular and Italic. Since the typeface couldn’t be ready for the relaunch of the new design, Matthias decided to do a typographical restart: all communications (Posters, Flyers, Letters) were set in Times New Roman, and this typeface would be replaced gradually with new sets of characters as they were produced. At the end of 2017, the whole set was finally developed and in use ever since. With some minor tweaks and corrections, the typeface will be released as of now under the title: Happy Times at the IKOB.

From Possible Books:

Some motherf***er has been tagging the side of your building for thirty years. Could that possibly be explained by common sense & unqualified observers, or is there something deeper happening on walls and objects throughout New York City?
A few of the essays written in this monograph, published separately in German and French, offer a succinct introduction to Dumar Novy’s recent thoughts on graffiti.
Novy tries to dispel the cynicism frightened beings traditionally have toward graffiti by showing that at the core of life, there is a yearning for the same experience: the impression of existence. Guided by the question Can the WoWO speak? Novy creates poetry that weaves philosophical interrogations with mathematical calculations, exploring such diverse fields as kinship, rebirth, dog shit & etymology.

What Do A Million Ja Tags Signify was published by Possible Books in August 2015.
96 pages, 135×184 mm, b/w offset, paperback with sleeve.
The book was designed by Possible Book’s co-owner Matthias Hübner. All typography is set in fonts by Swiss Typefaces, who sponsor Possible Books through their typefaces.
Suisse Int'l and Suisse Works are part of the Suisse collection, and SangBleu Kingdom is part of the SangBleu collection.

Fully Booked: Ink on Paper is a showcase of innovative books and other print products at the vanguard of a new era for printed publications.

Editors: Robert Klanten, Matthias Hübner, Andrew Losowsky
Design & editorial concept: Matthias Hübner

Exhibition poster.