In the 1960’s and 1970’s, David Plante and Nikos Stangos lived in a three-room flat in Battersea, London, where they often spent time with artists, poets, editors, socialites and publishers, entertaining and whiling time away playing Exquisite Corpse*.

This book collects remnants from those parties, where decades after the drawings were created, the collection shows how many different friends David and Nikos kept, and the improbable connections between them all. It’s hard to identify exactly who create which part of which character, with each taking on a life of its own.

Each of the 68 selected games were drawn on a vast range of papers – from near-neon sheets, to the backs of documents, to torn and almost discarded scraps. Reproduced in the book at 1:1 scale, which resulted in an oversized book format.

The plates are introduced with an essay by David Plante, reminiscing about the times spent at Overstrand Mansions. This text is laid out in a way that references the act of passing around the ‘Corpse’, where each paragraph’s starting position links on from the end of the previous.

Each typeface was designed by friends of the studio, echoing the collaborative approach of the Corpse’s. The ornate calligraphic title styling of the typeface Angliche by Jules Estèves brings in a hand-written, decorative flair, with each character being formed from separate elements that connect to build up the letterforms. This is partnered with HAL Timezone by Elias Hanzer and Lucas Liccini for the body text. A robust and weighty serif that creates an impression on the page.

By, with, or in the presence of:
Tim Adès
Caroline Blackwood
Stephen Buckley
Catherine Carver
Bruce Chatwin
Michael Craig-Martin
Gregory Evans
Samantha Flanagan
Teresa Flanagan
Sue Flanagan
Barry Flanagan
John Fleming
Suzi Gablik
Tamar Garb
John Golding
Germaine Greer
David Hockney
Hugh Honour
Rassad Jamie
James Joll
Frank Kermode
Mark Lancaster
Andrew Lord
Keith Milow
Linda Nochlin
Sonia Orwell
David Plante
Patrick Procktor
Robert Rosenblum
Stephen Spender
Natasha Spender
Nikos Stangos
Alex Tryonin
Anne Wollheim

The cover jacket directly references the format of the game through three, alternating, hand-creased folds that divide the content.

A prominent wine stain alludes to the late-night gatherings of friends, colleagues and acquaintances.