Set in the Derbyshire Dales, Chatsworth has been home to the Cavendish family for sixteen generations. ‘Chatsworth, Arcadia, Now’ tells the story of this remarkable house through seven distinct periods of its life, drawing on the extraordinary breadth of art and craft collected by the family over more than four centuries.
With the opportunity to create a complete body of new photography, art direction played a fundamental role in establishing the tone of the book. GTF commissioned photographer Victoria Hely-Hutchinson, who was given unrestricted access to the private collection over a two year period. Her informal approach, using available light and flash with both film and digital formats, resulted in a rich, eclectic and poetic portrait of Chatsworth that captures both the grandeur of a stately house and the intimacy of a family home.
The design of the book employs a range of visual devices inspired by the collection to reflect the density and diversity of Chatsworth’s interiors. Chapters are introduced with kaleidoscopic patterns created in-camera by tessellating details from the house itself. The headline type, used on the spine and title page, is adapted from ‘The Rules of the Three Orders of Print Letters’ by Joseph Moxon, published in 1676, which lays out the principles of letter construction and of which a copy is held in the Chatsworth Library. Elsewhere, Kam Tang’s contemporary interpretation of illuminated initials marks the start of each essay and reappears collectively, foiled across the cover lining.
Juxtaposing the traditional with the modern, the book mirrors the unconventional and idiosyncratic character of Chatsworth, an environment that is both accessible and constantly evolving. As the untitled wrap jacket suggests, this compact volume is a small piece of the house itself: a take-home, doll’s-house version of Chatsworth.
Photography: Victoria Hely-Hutchinson
Illustration: Kam Tang
Campaign Fedrigoni – Image library
Campaign Vitra – Vitra Classics
Campaign Kvadrat – Kittens
Campaign Frieze Art Fair – Fireworks
Campaign Kvadrat – Shapes
Campaign Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre – The Season of Regime Change
Exhibition Somerset House – Cute
Exhibition Science Museum – Who am I?
Exhibition Art Institute of Chicago – GTF: Resourceful Design
Identity Fedrigoni – Paper Box
Identity Gagosian – Identity
Identity Design Museum – Identity
Identity Frieze Art Fair – Identity
Identity Habitat – Identity
Packaging Homer – Homer
Packaging Herman Miller – Formwork
Product Tate/Perpetual Editions – Perpetual Postcard Calendar
Product Graphic Thought Facility – MeBox
Publication Andrea Caputo & Anniina Koivu – U-Joints
Publication Gagosian – Catalogues
Publication Fendi – The Fendi Set
Publication Penguin Books – Chatsworth, Aradia, Now
Publication Richard Avedon Foundation – Avedon Advertising
Publication Dior – Dior Images: Paolo Roversi
Publication COS – Creating with Shapes
Publication Gagosian – Gagosian Quarterly
Publication Bloomsbury – Heston Blumenthal at Home
Publication Gagosian – Crash: Homage to JG Ballard
Retail Vitra – VitraHaus
Wayfinding Vitra – VitraHaus Signage
Wayfinding Hult International Business School – Wayfinding