Artist’s Book, 2016
68 pages, b/w, / 23.5 x 16.4 cm
In English only, softcover
Publisher: Igor Kuduz
Text: Marko Golub
Graphic design: Igor Kuduz
Edition of 300, Hand sewn

The book by Igor Kuduz, published in 2016, is not as you might
expect, artists’ book full of visual material, photos, or designs. In
fact, its form and content are determined in advance by default.
None of the materials published in the book is originally produced
by the author himself. He intervened only by his selection of
materials with the sole intention to limit it’s dimension since
otherwise, it could have been encyclopaedic in size.
Panegyrics are short poems, literary limericks and slogans,
miniature confessions, erotic or sexual cries, but also much more
than just what you can expect.

“A friend sent me this book for upload months ago and of course, I’m
late as usual with opening it, but you should definitely take a look at
it! He’s a designer, photographer and artist, and he always wants us
to think how he doesn’t take himself too seriously, at least in this
case. So, here you are, folks, meet – Igor
Igor uses technology quite a lot in his work but insists on using it in
the most naive way possible. For example, one time he made a short
story collection, a book consisting exclusively of spam messages and
e-mail scams, such as fake dating invitations or those little stories
about people from a far-away country who want to transfer millions
of dollars to your bank account. It’s as if those little life stories,
whether they’re sad or tragic or sexual in nature were all true. I also
remember that one time he went to Paris – the Mecca of postcard
imagery and started a photo diary on Facebook but only took photos
of those unremarkable places you find on the edges of any other
city. Places so unrecognizable, yet so familiar, so true to our own
experience.He almost exclusively uses his cell phone camera and documents
everything his long walks, social gatherings, the people he meets in
trains and buses, insignificant things that loom in the corner of the
room during our conversations. He keeps all those images and later
structures them into narratives. Each folder a different one. I have
no idea what this particular thing is but I’m sure it will blow you
away. See for yourself!”
Marko Golub, from the Foreword to Panegyrics

Igor Kuduz (Zagreb, 1967) is a visual artist and graphic designer, a
professor at the Department of Media Design, University North,
Koprivnica One of the founders of the Institute for Contemporary
Art. Member of the Expert Council of Croatian Photographic Union.
Member of the Management Board of the Croatian Designers
Society. He has exhibited at shows and video festivals in Zagreb,
Split, Ljubljana, Clermont-Ferrand, Bonn, Budapest, Berlin, Aachen,
Dessau, Tirana, Cairo, Trieste, New York and more other places.

Marko Golub is an awarded art critic based in Zagreb. He was
president of AICA – Croatia, and is curator of the gallery of the Croatian
Association of Designers.