The Artist Book subject program at ESAD.CR is linked to this pedagogical project started in 2011 – Editions of Sala 5. An assembling project that brings together pages prepared by students, where each one brings their own authorial work developed in the studio.

These pages take shape in drawing, printmaking, painting, collage and digital printing processes, which makes some pages multiple and others unique. Not all pages are signed or numbered, this decision is left to the author of each page. The philosophy of the first assemblings from the 1970s is recovered, a work in collaboration between several authors, for which the editor only asks for contributions and defines the number of copies, questioning and dissolving the conventional authorial role of the editor.

All authors involved in the assembly participate in the definition and production of the publication. This makes all the volumes already published of Sala 5 take different forms due to their collaborative nature. This assembling is the result of artistic practice linked to a network of human relationships that arise in the context of the school.

Latest editions:

Vol. XIII – The Future as Adventure

2024

Coordination // Ana João Romana / Isabel Baraona
ESAD.CR Upper School of Arts and Design – Polytechnic of Leiria
Communication and Culture Cooperative – Torres Vedras

Vol. XIV
2025
Coordination // Ana João Romana / Kevin Claro

Publication designed with Editions n’importe quoi, using materials discarded by the Caldense printing company GRACAL and by Santos Monteiro.
The students, authors of this publication, decided in a meeting that it would be permeated by the idea of the Midas touch. Based on Greek mythology, they draw a parallel with the artist’s touch as someone with the ability to transform something that has been discarded into something special and precious – a work of art. In another episode of mythology, Midas is asked to give his aesthetic judgement on who was the best musician. Midas chooses Pan over Apollo, which leads to the king being punished by the god, with Midas’ ears being transformed into donkey ears.