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Jo Zixuan (

周子璇

) is a Chinese-American graphic designer and illustrator, currently based in New York City. Having graduated from SVA with a BFA in illustration and RISD with an MFA in Graphic Design, Jo specializes in visual storytelling, bi-scriptual typography, and expressive systems. Her concept- and research-driven process takes form in visual identities, books, spaces, and websites. She maintains a teaching practice through adjunct teaching, mentorship and

Illustration Roundtable.
‍
CLIENTS
The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, NPR, Columbia Global Report, Medium, NBC, PLANSPONSOR, NYT for KIDS China, The Atlantic, Narratively, Toggl, Intel, FCB Inferno, Dotdash, The Balance, Thought Co., Lifewire, TripSavvy, The Spruce,

三联《少年》

新世相

FEATURES
It's Nice That, Groundooh Art, Hiiibrand

AWARDS
2022 - Society of Illustrators 65 Annual
2021 - Communication Arts 63 Winner
2020 - Hiiibrand Jury Award
2020 - American Illustration 39 Winner
2020 - Society of Illustrators Annual
2019 - Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Competition Finalist
2019 - 3 x 3 International Illustration Award Merit Winner
2019 - The Batsford Prize International Category Shortlisted
2018 - Speedball New Impressions winner, Intaglio/Etching Second Place

EXHIBITIONS
2023 - eMotion, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven
2023 - Sino-German Illustration Exhibition, HISMOON gallery, Suzhou
2021 - NO SAMPLE Risograph Exhibition, Fujian
2021 - NO SAMPLE Risograph Exhibition, Xi'an
2019 - Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship, New York
2019 - Speedball National Printmaking Showcase, Davis Gallery, Sawtooth, NC
2018 - The Haves and Have-Nots, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York 2018 - Constellations, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York
2018 - HOPE Competition, SVA Westside Project Space, New York

COLOPHON
Web design
Jo Zixuan

Typeface
Authentic Sans by Christina Janus and Desmond Wong
‍Situated Sans by Thea Kim
‍

The Bible-Leaved Sperm Whale

A research project into the history of the whaling industry

Print, Spatial

Year

2024

Spec

Installtion:
34'9" x 7'9"
10.6 x 2.36 m
Book:
5.5" x 8.5"
140 x 216 mm
1368 pages

Part paper installation, part book design, this research project collects historical archive of the whaling industry, detailing it's artifacts including whaling logs, ships, tools, and final products that were made from whale bodies.
The installation takes the scale of an average female sperm whale, and the book takes the scale of "bible leave", a term used in the whaling industry to describe a slab of whale fat.
The installation and book share the same number of paper. A sperm whale is thus pieced back by individual bible leaves, reversing the brutal act of cutting the whale carcass.

Whaling in the Ross Sea by Captain George Samuel Hooper; photographer; 1924; Southern Ocean Museum of New Zealand

Whaling in the Ross Sea, by Captain George Samuel Hooper, 1924, Southern Ocean. Museum of New Zealand.

Boarding a blanket piece, by Clifford Warren Ashley on Sunbeam (Bark), 1904. New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Blocks of blubber, Ross Sea, by Captain George Samuel Hooper, 1924, Southern Ocean. Museum of New Zealand.

Before the advent of the petroleum and plastic industry, whale oil (used for lighting and lubrication), baleen (used in products like corsets and brushes), whale meat, and whale bones were all desirable for their irreplaceable qualities. After a whale is captured, its blubber was cut into pieces by whalers, first into "blanket piece", then "horse piece", and finally the size of a common bible, so they can fit into copper cauldrons and be rendered into oil. This process is coined “making bibles”.

I'm most fascinated by the size of these animals, especially in contrast with human, yet we found a way to process their giant bodies and caused the massive decline of the entired whale population. I wanted to experience this body scale in person.

A scale test for the typographic installation

The bible-sized book was printed in white to contrast with the whale-size installation printed in black. Every image was inverted so the negative is printed, leaving the blue paper to be the dark tone. The white side of the book is an image archive of historical documentation collected from various museums. They are categorically divided into three chapters: Whaling Logs, On The Whaling Ships, and Whaling Products. The black side of the book is fragments of the whale-sized installation.

The installation and book share the same number of printed pages. If the 1,368 pages in the book were pulled apart and collaged together, the result would be the same as the installation. It displays the super-sized word “sperm whale” in 33.5 feet length, the same size as a female sperm whale. The black letters on blue paper allow the viewers an immersive experience of a whale at the deep sea. The installation is a reversal of the cutting process, leaving the printing margin a symbol of the violent cutting of the whale body. When I used my arms to smooth out the wrinkles of the collaged installation, it was as if I was caressing the whale herself.

The book as an object resembles a chunk of whale blubber with its volume, giving the graphic installation thickness and weight. The installation was too large for our available space, it can only be put together on the floor one letter at a time. The strenuous process is not unlike the back-breaking labor sailers went through dissecting these animals.