For New York-based designer Joyce Ho, design is an opportunity to slow down in a world that never stops moving. She describes her practice as a balance between “constraints and creativity,” and it’s through this balancing act that she aims to inspire connection, curiosity, and “critical imagination” in her audience. “Like an open ending to a movie where people sit there and ask ‘what’s next?’ — sometimes a parody, other times maybe a plot twist,” she adds.

Joyce was born in Shanghai and moved to the US to study graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design, before eventually taking her current position as a Digital News Design Fellow at The New York TimesIt was during this transitional period that Joyce discovered the provocative capacity of design – an outlet through which she could challenge and subvert media and subjects. In one of her more recent projects, Joyce designed two miniature books around the question ‘what is a rock’, with one of the books containing an actual rock in an internal recess, and the other a profusion of text and images about rocks. Joyce describes this as one of her ‘dumber projects’, although she has also explored more serious projects, such as ‘what is death’.

For this project, entitled Cyborg clothingJoyce spoke with four people who have lived through life-or-death scenarios. These conversations were then translated into a book that offers readers a unique insight into the subject, and hopefully a deeper understanding of how to deal with it, both theoretically and in practice. As with Joyce’s other projects, the physical object is cherished, with great attention to every little detail. Handmade stitched labels, text-printed spines, and a mylar cover with close-up images of Joyce’s real skin make for a book that is intriguing both in its content and its overall design.