We were commissioned to design the English and Kurdish language monograph Don’t Shrink Me to the Size of a Bullet on the occasion of artist Hiwa K’s exhibition at KW Institute for Contemporary Art and his participation in documenta 14. The seemingly makeshift book combines artworks, anecdotes and notes that reveal a conceptual intricacy that is full of wit, directness and humour.

Edited by Anthony Downey and published by König Books the publication presents the entirety of the artist’s oeuvre in which vernacular forms, oral histories, and political constructs are intertwined. The cover of the book opens to reveal an intentionally informal arrangement of content, printed on two different page sizes and bound together with a white plastic spiral binding. Artworks are printed full-bleed while anecdotes that recount gossip, family stories and aphorisms provide context to works that deal with the artist's exile from Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan. Notes on artworks, prepared by the artist especially for the book, are printed on foreshortened pages. A series of new texts by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Natasha Ginwala, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and Aneta Szylak provide portraits of the artist, an accomplished musician, dancer, educator and interlocutor.