LAWRENCE Bookshop
LAWRENCE is a bookshop and exhibition space specializing on artists' books in central Madrid. It is a project by visual artist Alejandro Cesarco, whose work engages with ideas of editing and reproduction. Cesarco also serves as the director of Art Resources Transfer, a New York–based non-profit dedicated to producing and distributing artists’ books and expanding access to art and literacy through public institutions. The bookshop pays homage to a friend of Cesarco, the late conceptual artist Lawrence Wiener, who famously worked spatially with text and typography.
LAWRENCE thus emerged as part of Cesarco’s artistic practice, interested in books as a means to expand the circulation of art and broaden its access. The project builds on the lineage of artist-run bookshops such as Other Books and So by Ulises Carrión in Amsterdam, Printed Matter, Inc., founded by artists including Sol LeWitt and Lucy Lippard in New York, and Art Metropole in Toronto, established by the artists’ group General Idea. Like these other spaces, the main challenge of the shop was to offer the largest number of books possible to the user while providing clear spaces for art exhibition. Rather than sectorizing these uses, the project deliberately overlaps them, combining bookshelves with spaces for browsing and circulation, interwoven with expansive surfaces for art and its viewing.
Initially an electrical supply store, later a stationery shop and, more recently, an independent art gallery, this space on the narrow San Mateo Street underwent significant modifications while retaining the interior division defined by an original load-bearing wall. The layout inherited from the former gallery is reconfigured by closing two existing lateral openings and introducing a large central aperture that directly connects the entrance area with the rear space, consolidating what was previously an isolated and poorly lit back zone with the storefront.
Due to economic constraints, wall repairs and plastering were carried out only up to 2,60 metres, ensuring a neutral background for the display of artworks throughout the space. Beyond this height, walls and ceiling were largely preserved in their existing condition, with a series of interventions limited to uncovering the material layers the shop has accumulated over time. Rows of tubular lights hang from the ceiling and generate a soft, even light that prevents shadows. Due to the significant deterioration of its surface, the floor was covered with a clear grey resin finish, resulting in an industrial look.
LAWRENCE unfolds as a sequence of low shelf-based plinths whose thresholds organize the different activities within the bookshop. The street storefront is organized around a tiered display for books. On its inner face, it transforms into a furniture system partially recessed into the wall, incorporating shelves as well as a set of hidden foldable tables for work and display. In the central load-bearing wall, an interrupted shelf flanks the large, central opening. Moving toward the rear of the shop, a final shelf closes off a quieter, more secluded space for browsing books. The shelves are made of richly grained birch plywood, fabricated on site to ensure a precise fit with the walls, with the different boards joined through beveled edges. The top surfaces of the bookshelves, set slightly higher than table height, serve equally to support artworks or to stack publications.
A large table completes the ensemble, occupying almost the entirety of the entrance space and conforming the core of the shop. Conceived as a multipurpose element, it can function as a workspace, host workshops, display books, or operate as a vitrine for exhibitions. Equipped with integrated wheels, it can be hidden on the rear part, enabling the entrance space to accommodate book presentations, performances and other public events.
On the façade, the door and its frame, painted in a distinctive cadmium red, were left untouched. Above it, Cesarco decided to reproduce the bookshop’s name, Lawrence, using Lawrence Weiner’s characteristic typeface, hand-painted on black mirrored glass following a local sign-painting technique reminiscent of traditional shop signage.
Ultimately, LAWRENCE brings together bookselling and exhibition within a single, continuous space. Working with minimal means, the design avoids strict divisions and relies instead on a system of adaptable furniture. Custom-designed for the shop, these elements accommodate different uses while adapting to its changing rhythms.
