This limited edition book is published on the occasion of the exhibition ‘The Occidental Calligrapher. Fernando Lemos and Japan’, which will be on display at CAM from 21 September 2024 to 20 January 2025, the result of a project that Fernando Lemos conceived but never saw come to fruition during his lifetime. 

In 1963, Fernando Lemos received a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to study Japanese writing and calligraphy. In Japan he took several black and white photographs that have now been printed on paper for the first time for the CAM exhibition.

Designed by Isabel Santana Terron and conceived by Rosely Nakagawa, co-curator of the exhibition, this publication fulfils Lemos’ wishes by reproducing the negatives of 145 of these photographs taken in Japan.

A unique object, ‘Japan. Fernando Lemos’ is an artist’s book that creates a joyful dialogue between black and silver, reflecting the way Lemos fell in love with Japanese culture and containing a poem by the artist about Japan.