Great Force
Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU), 2019
6.5 x 9 in, Book
300 pages
Great Force is a powerful group show of artists confronting the impact of racism in America. Polymode designed the fully illustrated catalog that includes images and texts from the artists in the exhibition, new contributions from writers Nicholas Mirzoeff and Rebecca Walker, an essay by exhibition curator Amber Esseiva, historical reprints from Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, and Nell Irvin Painter, and custom information design created by Polymode that informed the themes of the exhibition.
Great Force
Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU)
Exhibition Didactics
Oct 5, 2019 – Jan 5, 2020














Great Force
Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU), 2019
6.5 x 9 in, Book
300 pages
Great Force is a powerful group show of artists confronting the impact of racism in America. Polymode designed the fully illustrated catalog that includes images and texts from the artists in the exhibition, new contributions from writers Nicholas Mirzoeff and Rebecca Walker, an essay by exhibition curator Amber Esseiva, historical reprints from Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, and Nell Irvin Painter, and custom information design created by Polymode that informed the themes of the exhibition.






Great Force
Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU)
Exhibition Didactics
Oct 5, 2019 – Jan 5, 2020
Poetic Research
The exhibit Great Force gets its name from an essay written by James Baldwin about the force that racism has on the American psyche. The identity design remixes graphic data visualizations made by W.E.B. Du Bois and his team of Black students from Atlanta University for the World’s Fair in 1900.
Explore this project’s poetic research →
