Alice Amati opens a new exhibition every couple of months at her gallery on Warren Street, London, and each one gets the same catalogue treatment: A5, usually sixteen pages, printed on 170gsm uncoated with the cover on the same sheet as the insides, wire stitched, 100 copies. Since 2023 we have printed around a dozen of them. This one is for Zero, a show of Massimiliano Gottardi's glass, light and timber sculptures that ran from 23 January to 28 February 2026, and it was made against a tight clock: final images on a Saturday, opening reception the following Thursday. The cover, hot magenta this time, is what changes from show to show. That is the point.
A small gallery does not need a different print spec for every artist. It needs one it can trust, order in an afternoon and hand out at the private view. The Alice Amati catalogue is that spec. Sixteen pages holds a curator's essay, installation and detail photographs with captions, and an artist biography on the last spread, and because every issue shares its size, paper and binding, the artwork template carries over and the price is known before the file is sent. Most repeat clients arrive at one by accident; we would rather design it with you at the first show, so the second is easy and the twelfth automatic.
Self-cover means the outer four pages are printed on the same stock as the inside twelve: no separate cover board, no lamination. On sixteen pages that is usually the better call: a 300gsm cover wrapped around a dozen thin pages wants to spring open; 170gsm throughout closes and stays closed, opens flat on a plinth or a lap, and the two staples vanish into the fold. Mike's note on the finished copy: flat and neat. Uncoated adds a soft, matt hand that suits an art catalogue. Gottardi's works are broken mirror, water, LED light and burnt cedar, and on uncoated paper they read as objects in a room rather than as screenshots.
The cover is a flat field of magenta with the name, title and dates reversed out in white. Solids are the honest test of an uncoated sheet: the ink sits in the fibre rather than on a coating, so a heavy colour comes out softer and more velvety than on silk, without glare or fingerprints. Inside, the margins are generous, the captions sit small beneath each work, and the octahedron sculpture is given a whole spread, its photograph running straight across the fold. Wire stitching suits anything from 8 to around 72 pages, and at sixteen the fold is tight enough that a crossover image lines up without a visible step.
Rosalita, the gallery assistant, asked us to price the usual spec and warned that the timeline was tight: the final images would only reach the gallery on the Saturday afternoon, the file would follow first thing on Monday, and the catalogues were needed by early afternoon on Thursday, for the opening that evening. Mike replied within minutes: the usual price, and yes to the turnaround. "Thanks for confirming the turnaround will be okay," Rosalita wrote. The file arrived at 8am on the Monday and the proof went back that morning; after a second link (the first led to a login page), she replied at 11:56: "Yes, that worked. All approved now." The catalogues left us on the Tuesday and reached the gallery in a one-hour delivery slot, on Wednesday, a day before the opening.
For a gallery on a programme, that reliability is worth more than any single finish. The latest booklet in the series, for the gallery's September show, went from a Friday-afternoon file in August to delivery on the Tuesday, and when we told her it was finished, Alice Amati wrote back: "Thank you Mike for a speedy job."
A5 stapled catalogues are one of the formats we print most for galleries and artists. See also the Lovers and Enemies A5 gallery catalogues, and our exhibition catalogue printing page covers self-cover and separate-cover builds.
Planning a season of shows? Get a price on our Printed Project Builder, or ask Harriet and Mike to help you set a house format of your own.
