Lenz publishes books on contemporary art, photography, architecture and design.
Our imprint includes catalogues, monographs, theory and artist books.
This book accompanies 5 Works, Lydia Ourahmane’s first institutional solo show in Italy, staged at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation in Venice and curated by Polly Staple, during the 61st Venice Biennale, and includes newly commissioned texts and images that further contextualize the artist’s practice and work.
Museums of Tears extends Francesco Vezzoli’s 2024 exhibition at Museo Correr, Venice, combining historical works and new commissions to explore antiquity, emotion and illusion. Conceived as an artist’s book rather than a catalogue, it transforms the museum guide into a hybrid archive and portable museum of memory, beauty and mourning.
A project by Fondazione In Between Art Film, edited by Carla Subrizi, Paola Ugolini, and Maria Alicata, this illustrated volume investigates the cinematic, documentary, and video output of women artists and filmmakers operating in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s, situating their research at the intersection of artistic experimentation, politics, society, and technology.
A multifaceted perspective on contemporary sculpture that explores the practices and concepts of the medium through different approaches. The publication interweaves works by Yu Ji, Bronwyn Katz, Dan Lie, Trương Công Tùng, and Luana Vitra, with essays by Federico Giani, Sohrab Mohebbi, Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga, Chiara Nuzzi, and Anne Reeve.
Suffused with specially conceived collages of the artist’s research materials, notes, and sketches, this is the first monograph on Castelli’s painting and sculpture, with essays by Sarah Crowe and Lillian Davies, and an artist interview by Francesco Manacorda. Published with Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and Kunsthalle Wien.
What if the shadow moved first? From March through May 2026, the exhibition The Second Shadow. Dozie Kanu Mirroring Marc Camille Chaimowicz, with Shared Echoes and Kindred Spirits at Fondazione ICA Milano unfolds online through a series of voices and crossings that shift its gravity. Not an extension. A displacement.
Edited by Lydia Ourahmane and Polly Staple
Texts by Nicoletta Fiorucci, Lydia Ourahmane, Polly Staple
Designed by Lorenzo Mason Studio
2026, English, softcover, 16.5 × 24 cm, 384 pages
ISBN 979-12-80579-98-0
This book accompanies 5 Works, Lydia Ourahmane’s first institutional solo show in Italy, staged at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation in Venice and curated by Polly Staple, during the 61st Venice Biennale. As Ourahmane’s first publication, the book sets a template for her future editorial projects. Central to this design is the custom typeface “LL,” created by the artist with graphic designer Lorenzo Mason. Ourahmane’s new commission, 5 Works, followed her residency at the Foundation, which saw her living and working in Venice from January to May 2026.
One of the show’s prerequisites was that many of the artworks should be created in Venice. Ourahmane thus worked with Venetian craftspeople and technicians but also with organisations in the city and the surrounding Veneto region. 5 Works combines a wide range of visceral media—antique sculpture moulds, church lighting and decommissioned bed linen among them—with traditional conceptual gestures such as the recontextualization of found objects and the presentation of documentary processes. Several works in the exhibition are the direct result of negotiations, transactions and exchanges specific to historic sites and activist associations in Venice: the church of San Giovanni Crisostomo, Poveglia per tutti, Banco Lotto No. 10: Il Cerchio, Lavanderia LSG and TOCIA! Cucina e Comunità.
The publication encompasses the following elements: 282 photographs that Ourahmane shot during her residency in Venice while preparing 5 Works; an introduction to Ourahmane’s work and to the exhibition, written by Staple; a conversation between Ourahmane and Staple, structured as a walking tour of the exhibition; installation views, by photographer Marco Cappelletti, sequenced in the order visitors encountered the works; the floor plan of the exhibition—appearing on the book’s cover—complete with the list of works; and an endnote by Nicoletta Fiorucci.
Photos: Nicola Gnesi