Ilhas Studio — Inspiration / Matilde Søes Rasmussen

Inspiration is a photobook designed for photographer and former model Matilde Soes Rasmussen and published by XYZ Books.

At its core lies a sustained inquiry into the tensions between artist and muse, observation and desire. Rasmussen’s practice critically examines the historical and contemporary commodification of the female body, not by offering answers but by holding contradictions in view. Can the beauty industry and its systems of representation be challenged through their own imagery, or does the act of photographing them inevitably reproduce what it seeks to undo?

The graphic design of the book is inseparable from this questioning. Its structure, divided into chapters, forms the foundation of the visual concept: four uncut notebooks create a sequence of incisive forms, marked by sharp edges and pronounced recesses. This geometric severity stands in deliberate contrast to the corporeal poses within the photographs. Alongside the book’s seductive, almost organic imagery, an austere and vertical presence asserts itself through design.

As the pages unfold, the accumulation of images reads as a methodical process of searching and investigation, a visual rhythm that gradually softens and slows toward the end. This flow is punctuated by the artist’s diary entries, which interrupt the sequence to reveal the project’s genesis and construction. Together, image, text, and form shape a book in which graphic design does not merely contain the work but actively frames its questions.