'The master provocateur creates timeless beauty from historical objects'

★★★★ The Independent

'No one does it quite like Ai Weiwei'

★★★★ The Times

'Powerful, political and provocative art installations by Ai Weiwei at the Design Museum, challenging us to question the world we live in'

★★★★★ Culture Whisper

'Profoundly moving'

The Telegraph

Published to accompany the Design Museum’s major 2023 exhibition, Ai Weiwei: Making Sense explores the artist’s personal collections and conceptual practice through a design lens — from Neolithic tools and imperial porcelain fragments to mass-produced plastic and demolition rubble.

Edited by Justin McGuirk with a foreword by Tim Marlow, the book features contributions from Wang Shu, Brian Dillon and Julia Lovell, and concludes with an in-depth interview between Eyal Weizman and Ai Weiwei.

As Project Editor, I managed the full editorial production process, from contributor coordination and budget control through to reprographics, print and producrtion. I also led the art direction for the publication, working closely with the artist himself and London-based design studio Twelve to shape the visual identity – including layout strategy, typographic treatment and material pacing – ensuring the book echoed the conceptual clarity and tactile qualities of the exhibition itself.

Following publication, Ai Weiwei personally thanked me for 'bringing out the best in his work' – a compliment that continues to resonate.

The Aristotelian Society visual identity

The Aristotelian Society x Oxford University Press