Join us at the Printed Matter NY Art Book Fair, booth A1, for a signing of Only For Now and RED THREAD with artist Joseph Rovegno.

Rovegno’s Only For Now is an intricate, hand-made publication from Origini Edizioni. Included in the ICP Library and NYPL Special Collections, Only For Now features black and white photographic images sewn into the pages, many overlaid with handwritten and typed text. These image and text combinations, printed on a variety of materials and transparencies, develop Rovegno’s unique visual and linguistic legacy and create illuminating symbols almost impossible to deconstruct. A special edition of the publication includes an embroidered sleeve and silver gelatin print by the artist.

RED THREAD features a series of images demonstrating the duality of two worlds: New York and Palermo. After completing a residency in Palermo, Sicily with PBJ INC., Rovegno developed and printed the publication’s included image series in a darkroom in Milan. The sequenced images expand upon Rovegno’s previous photographic book work, Ideas of Reference (2022)—a project that centers upon the state described by the titular, clinical term, “idea of reference,” which is used to describe the state of an individual who believes everything happens in relation to themselves.

Joseph Rovegno’s work is a multidisciplinary index of clear and extremely sensitive photographic perception, originating in and influenced by his hometown (NYC) and its underground culture. Rovegno’s work employs a photographic dialect tracing its roots to a cultural background which is motivated by the expressive freedom of an artistic practice with no academic or formal education in photography.