2026

THE IMPROPER RETURN

EPISTROPHY is an open-ended project begun in August 2026 with two books collected from a free book-exchange point in Trémolat, France, and subsequently taken to Granollers.

Epistrophy means return, final repetition, insistence. In this project, however, returning does not mean recovering intact what once existed. The return alters its origin, displaces it and turns it into something else.

The process begins with existing physical publications, preferably books that are no longer used or are likely to disappear. Images, texts, forms and graphic elements are selected from their pages, isolated, altered and recombined to produce a new image. The aim is neither to illustrate the book nor to preserve its contents, but to work with the remains of its former function.

The book ceases to fulfil the purpose for which it was produced, but it does not disappear. It returns improperly: fragmented, displaced and reorganised. The misalignment is not corrected; it becomes the structure of the new work.

Each work remains connected to the specific book from which it originated. This connection does not serve as an explanation, but as the material trace of a transformation. The series currently comprises seven DIN A3 images, each issued in a numbered edition of three.

VICENS VACCA  /  2026