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The main idea behind STEIDL-WERK No.23: MASAHO ANOTANI "DEFORMED" is to create a paper object never seen before. A joint project, it stems from the exclusive collaboration between Theseus Chan ´s WERK magazine and Steidl Publishers for this particular issue of WERK. This magazine issue features a young Japanese artist, Masaho Anotani, whose complex collage-like drawings, sometimes surreal and sometimes disturbing compositions, are made almost entirely by hand. The title "DEFORMED" is part of the idea to create a misshapen book that evolves during the process of coming into existence. Building on the concept of clashing, creating and destructing the final product, something new - a chaotic bricolage of "printed junk" - is born.

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Born in 1961, Theseus Chan is a Singaporean graphic artist and printed matter designer with a keen interest in the visual arts, materials, printing and processing technology. His design studio, WORK, has been publishing WERK magazine since 2000. He was named Designer of the Year at the inaugural President´s Design Award Singapore in 2006. Other distinctions include several D&AD Yellow Pencils, New York Art Directors Club (ADC) and Tokyo Type Directors´ Club. In 2012, Chan became the first Singaporean designer to have a solo exhibition at ggg, Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo, and in 2015, he became the official member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). His work is held in the permanent collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, and M+, Museum of Visual Culture in Hong Kong. Masaho Anotani was born in Hyogo, Japan, in 1991. He studied design at Seika University, Kyoto, and Fine Arts at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, and currently lives and works in Tokyo.

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