About the Book
Synthesis is a comprehensive artist’s book presenting six years of work by Japanese multimedia artist Mari Katayama, created between 2019 and 2025.
Working in her home studio in Gunma, Katayama stages self-portraits that merge photography, textile art, and sculpture into intricate installations.
The book features nine photographic series, including the new cycle Tree of Life, marking a period shaped by motherhood and return to her origins.
Through the dialogue between the body and handcrafted objects, Synthesis examines perception, identity, and the fluid boundary between what is natural and artificial. The images, dense with texture and memory, embody the philosophical meaning of synthesis – the coexistence and reconciliation of opposites.
Published by MACK Books, this large-format volume continues Katayama’s exploration of beauty, resilience, and transformation of the body as a site of creation and becoming.
Softcover, 24.5 x
36.5
cm, 0.8 kg, 96 pages, English
ISBN: 978-1-917651-11-0
About the Author
Mari Katayama (b. 1987, Gunma, Japan) is a contemporary artist known for her self-portraits integrating her own body with hand-sewn objects and textile sculptures.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and Maison Européenne de la Photographie.
Katayama’s practice engages questions of self-representation, physical form, and the relationship between human identity and materiality.
GPSR
Publisher / Manufacturer:
Mack Books
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Website:
https://mackbooks.eu/
Importer
Kirill Korchemkin
Graf-Stauffenberg-Straße 6
76189 Karlsruhe
Germany
Email:
info@lokator100.store
Phone:
+4915223356050
