Follow the Guide exhibition, Brussels

We’ve never been great with instruction manuals, preferring the learn-by-experience method to gadgetry and life. That said, one of our favourite bits of Belgian lifestyle magazine, The Word, is the page called ‘The Guide’, a ‘how to’ crib sheet for an activity appropriate to the theme of the bi-monthly issue, done by a different studio each time.

See some of our favourite guides from the exhibition

Favouites in the past have included Big Game’s ‘Guide to Wasting Time at Work’ for The Word’s ‘Lazy’ issue and Kotje’s ‘Guide to Yo Mama is so Fat Jokes’ for the ‘Big’ issue. Now, together with Absolut vodka, The Word has turned their guides into an exhibition – Follow the Guide - in a disused retails pace in Brussels’ Flagey area, throwing open the commission to designers from all disciplines to send in an entry.

They selected their favourites, printed a stack of them and yesterday celebrated the opening night with a free-for-all creative jam. Amongst the macabre (Damien Hirst’s ‘Guide to Self-Murder’) and practical (Atypyk’s ‘Guide to Making Business Cards’) a big highlight was our very own Wallpaper* entry – The Guide to Getting High – a foldable model for the perfect paper plane, of course.

A weekend celebration of cut-outs and Absolut-fuelled cocktail parties will be followed by an exhibition of the entries, which runs until 30th September.

11 September 2009 | Art