DOINA KRAAL

TOUCHE-À-TOUT
Some frames for the wonder of the world, featuring some of the wonders of the world

Merel van den Berg, Doina Kraal & Freek Lomme (Eds.)

A fascinating publication, nuanced and engaging, on the wonders and mysteries of optical devices and the natural world. From the first camera obscura to virtual reality, Dutch artist Doina Kraal (b. 1980) sets out in her exhibition and elaborate artist’s book, Toucheà- Tout, to lead the viewer on a marvelous journey. The inspiration for Touche-à-Tout was her fascination with the historical rarekiek: a wooden backlit peepshow box invented in the 18th century. Krall’s multidimensional book explodes with the textured materials, objects and stories from her wanderings, collecting, and installations. Creating sensory experiences that one can touch, smell, feel, see and hear, she brings her research and global travels into intimate focus. From historical maps and scientific drawings to Kraal’s own drawings, handwritten notes and a sculptural interpretation of the Internet cloud, the book’s pages are embedded with smells, tastes and objects, including a business card and a coin tucked into the binding—a marriage of our earliest visual inventions to our present visual technologies, beautifully wrapped in one package.

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