River, Stratum—: Yukihito Kono
A limited artist’s book by Japanese artist Yukihito Kono, tracing the flow of a river, the accumulation of time, and the shifting relationships between landscape and memory.
River, Stratum— was produced as an exhibition work for Kono’s solo exhibition And Then / それから, held at the ryokan Hanamurasaki in Yamanaka Onsen, Ishikawa, in 2026.
Since 2023, Kono has been developing a body of work centred on Yamanaka Onsen. In And Then / それから, he shifted his attention further away from mountainous scenery and the townscape, focusing instead on the Daishōji River and Kakusenkei Gorge within its basin. Walking the site, he photographed the river, rocks, plants, traces, and birds encountered along its course. The flow of the river, which has shaped the land over a long span of time, and the traces of lives already lost do not exist separately, but accumulate and overlap within the same current.
The accordion structure had already appeared in Kono’s earlier work Landscape Manual. However, whereas that earlier work remained unbound and suggested the recombinatory potential of fragmented images, this book is constructed as a single continuous form in order to embody the flow of the river and of time itself. Unfolding its pages also connects to the bodily sensation of walking alongside the river and tracing its course.
Yet the work does not simply depict a single current or a landscape of the gorge. The accordion form allows different images to connect depending on how the pages are opened, producing unexpected relationships and new landscapes. These encounters do not remain confined within the internal space of the book, but continue to shift through the viewer’s physical engagement and their relationship to the surrounding space. Landscape and memory, present and past, personal experience and the time accumulated within the land are not separate, but continue to interfere and flow together.
Limited edition of 10 copies. Hand-signed and numbered by the artist.
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Title: River, Stratum—
Artist: Yukihito Kono
Publisher: Self-published, April 2026
Format: Hardcover, handmade leporello by the artist, housed in an archival envelope
Size: 142 × 210 mm (folded) / 4544 × 210 mm (unfolded)
Printing: Pigment inkjet print on washi
Edition: 10 copies + 2 AP, each hand-signed and numbered
Language: n/a
ISBN: n/a
*Please note that, as each copy is handmade, shipping may take up to one week. Slight variations may also occur from copy to copy.