Cecile Di Giovanni

Gloss-coated paperboard slipcase housing the Text / Graphics volumes of the "Inhabited Fictions." thesis.

Inhabited Fictions., DNSEP (MFA) thesis, 2025 @ ENSBA Lyon

"Inhabited Fictions." is Cécile di Giovanni’s DNSEP thesis (Master’s level/MFA-equivalent), written at ENSBA Lyon (the Fine Arts School of Lyon, FR). It examines how fragments of North American popular culture—places, objects, narratives—emotionally charged since childhood become artistic material, and how their reactivation allows us to replay, subvert, and transform shared memory while building a critical gaze on dominant narratives. Designed by Text and Graphics ( TaG).

Geff from TaG showing the front of the gloss-coated paperboard slipcase containing the text and graphics volumes.

CdG showing the back of the gloss-coated paperboard slipcase containing the text and graphics volumes.

The thesis took shape not only as a body of research but also as a printed object—a hybrid of artist’s book and critical journal. Conceived as an extension of Cécile’s visual and narrative vocabulary, it weaves together texts, images, and archival fragments into a sequence that mirrors the layered nature of her thinking. Drawing on late-1990s/early-2000s U.S. press kits for Hollywood blockbusters, the work appears in two companion volumes (text vs. graphics), housed in a soft, glossy-coated cardboard sleeve.

“Inhabited Fictions.” — two-volume set: Text / Graphics.

“Inhabited Fictions.” — two-volume set: Text / Graphics.

DOWNLOAD THE THESIS (FR)

Unlike the two-volume print edition (Text / Graphics), the downloadable digital version merges both into a single file. Text and images are interleaved into one continuous sequence for on-screen reading.

Inside pages from the digital edition of "Inhabited Fictions."

Inside pages from the digital edition of "Inhabited Fictions."

The thesis text traces a simple path: inhabiting fiction; reactivating fragments; deconstructing/replaying/transforming. In recent works, this becomes tangible: Dark Places—porous zones between true/false and history/horror cinema—and Sleeping Beauty: Episode 1, which reworks a 1995 Disneyland Paris memory (Michael Jackson at the Sleeping Beauty Suite) into an immersive set of sculptural fragments—a split door with poster, a custom handle, a light switch—accompanied by a tape-based soundtrack.

The artist treat mental relics — erased VHS, vanished furniture — as active devices: disappearance turns them into totems that bind shared memory and intimate narrative. Ultimately, it’s a gentle form of emancipation: regaining agency over images by replaying and bending them, reaching a fragile but vital middle-ground where critique and inner reconciliation coexist.

Introductory pages from the thesis text of "Inhabited Fictions.", printed in black and white.

Inside pages of "Inhabited Fictions." (thesis), printed in black and white.

Inside pages of "Inhabited Fictions." (thesis), printed in black and white.

Inspiration

"Inhabited Fictions." — title design by Text and Graphics (TaG).

The title “Inhabited Fictions.” uses the house from the Home Alone logo as its emblem—a defining reference in Cécile’s work that naturally echoes her own search. The dream then unfolds in the “celestial” all-over print that wraps the sleeve, placing us squarely within the American dream at its most dazzling—space exploration, the pull of the unknown, and a longing for connection beyond Earth—evoking Robert Zemeckis’s Contact (1997) or the opening sequence of Joe Pytka’s Space Jam (1996).

— Geff, Text and Graphics (TaG)

Home Alone title design (Chris Colombus, 1991).

Home Alone 2 opening titles (Chris Columbus, 1992).

Home Alone opening titles (Chris Columbus, 1991).

Warner Bros. title design at the opening of Space Jam (Joe Pytka, 1996).

Scene from Last Action Hero (John McTiernan, 1993)

Inspired by 1990s–2000s film press kits, the object adopts their visual rhythm and material cues—glossy sleeve, image packets, production-note flow—to choreograph text and images together.