Accumulo

A book of images about excess, in which Alessio Bolzoni pairs appropriated pictures of rubbish and wasted objects with an essay by Slavoj Zizek reused with the philosopher's approval.

Accumulo starts from the accumulation of things and then of images, which a world producing everything in surplus turns into the same problem. Bolzoni draws on existing pictures from various sources and on photographs he made earlier, so he counts himself among the producers he examines. The book is offered as an organised repository of excess, a picture of what the Lacanian tradition calls surplus-enjoyment. Zizek's essay The Varieties of Surplus sits inside it as an interlocutor, a listener to the images, rather than as commentary on them. It is a 28 x 21 cm softcover, thread-sewn with a canvas-laminated cover printed in one colour, printed by Grafiche Veneziane. It was first published in 2023, launched with a signing at Yvon Lambert in Paris on 3 March, and shown at Cibrian in San Sebastian that June. A second edition followed in 2024.

Bolzoni is a London-based artist, photographer and director who also works on commissions for fashion houses and magazines. His books include Abuse (2017), Action Reaction (2020), I Speak A Language That Is Not Mine (2022) and Bloom or Bust (2026).