In June 2026, the Lawrence bookstore in Madrid (a project by Alejandro Cesarco) invited me to present a selection of publications at their venue. I decided, once again, to use Marianne Wex’s work as a starting point for my selection. This time, however, I did not limit myself to her famous book on bodily postures under patriarchy, but also included the series of instructional workbooks that Wex wrote and designed in 1969 for use in the typography classes she taught at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts.
The final selection, featuring three works by Wex (two publications and a reprint of one of her panels) and twenty publications by other artists, included printed works dating from the late 1950s to the present. In these books, brochures, and posters, one can see how different artists have approached gestural language as an effective system of communication, the body as a tool for inscription or writing, and the gesture as the smallest unit of meaning.
On the occasion of this exhibition, I published Ensayo 8: Lenguaje · Cuerpo · Escritura, which contains the list of publications that were exhibited (and available for sale) at Lawrence, as well as the first Spanish translation of a text by Wex, titled, precisely, “Lenguaje corporal” (“Body Language”).
Madrid / Hamburg: self-published, June 2026
Concept, text, and translation of Marianne Wex’s text: Mela Dávila Freire
Photographs: Enara Herranz
Graphic design: Cosmic, Barcelona
Texts in Spanish
Digital printing, 1+1
First print run (50 copies) printed in Madrid, unlimited edition
