Devlin’s protean work is rooted in a lifelong practice of reading and drawing. From sketches in the margins of texts—be they poetry, drama, song lyrics, opera libretti, climate reports, or endangered species lists—emerge the technically advanced, collectively imagined universes for which she is globally renowned. Fragile miniature paintings, paper cuts, and small mechanical cardboard models form the seeds of some of the most iconic, large-scale, multidisciplinary cultural manifestations in recent times, from public sculptures and installations at Superblue Miami and the Lincoln Center, to kinetic stage designs at the Metropolitan Opera, Olympic ceremonies, Super Bowl halftime shows, and monumental illuminated stage sculptures for Beyoncé, Rosalía, and Kendrick Lamar.
Devlin’s work is at once deeply personal and inherently collective. Over the past decade her art practice has engaged with biodiversity, linguistic diversity, and collective AI- generated poetry. She views the audience as a temporary society and encourages profound cognitive shifts by inviting public participation in communal choral works.
Following on the success of the first edition, originally published in 2023 with a retrospective exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, A Concise Atlas of Es Devlin features a reduced format with approximately twelve new projects from her recent output, showcasing an artist committed to exploring the limits of the visual arts. Spanning over thirty years of creativity, the tome features Devlin’s personal commentaries on each work, as well as interviews with her collaborators including Bono, Benedict Cumberbatch, Pharrell Williams, Brian Eno, Sam Mendes, and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye.
Reviews
Category-defying… An exquisitely produced and immersive artwork in itself, containing photographs, texts, foldouts, pullouts, translucent overlays and cutout pages that reflect the intricacy and imaginative extent of Devlin’s processes, from concept to final iteration.
— The New York Times
From the cardboard sculptures and paintings that developed into stage sets for the 2012 Olympic closing ceremony and the 2022 Super Bowl, to her activism, theater, poetry and more, this 900-page monograph traces… Es Devlin's three-decade-long career across disciplines.
— The New York Times Book Review
Vibrant photographs of Devlin's stage and arena structures contrast with the simplest of doodles, and everything in between. There are booklets within booklets; there are holes to look through and ideas to imagine… [T]he entire expanse of Devlin’s world is mapped out (hence the title) in vivid color and sumptuous design… One of our most brilliant and creative modern artists comes to scintillating life before you.
— Goldmine
[A]n immersive, joyful reading experience, an encyclopedia of creativity, and a tribute to the sculptural possibilities of the printed book. It gives form and substance to the artist's philosophy of why she creates.
— Print Magazine
Contributors
Es Devlin
Author
Es Devlin is a British contemporary artist who aims to amaze people into changing their minds. She creates large-scale sculptures that combine light, music, and language in order to encourage the cognitive and behavioral shifts that are becoming ever more urgent in the context of the current climate emergency. Her work has been displayed at Tate Modern, Serpentine, V&A, and PACE Gallery’s Superblue Miami alongside a new work by James Turrell. She has created stage sculptures for Beyoncé, The Weeknd, U2, the Royal Opera House, National Theatre, La Scala, and the Met Opera as well as the 2022 Super Bowl featuring Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, and Eminem.
