Sabinka a Makulka Art Book

This art book features the works of Iku Dekune, an award-winning Japanese painter and picture book artist based in Prague. It brings together 50 new paintings created especially for her solo exhibition of the same title, held in spring 2025 at the beautiful gallery kasper in Hayama, Japan.

Thoughtfully designed by Hideyuki Saito - a talented Tokyo-based designer known for creating many beautiful and poetic books - this volume transforms Iku’s exquisite artworkss into a cohesive and lyrical whole. It captures the vivid, playful lives of Sabinka and Makulka, the two beloved cats she lives with, as they roam through her stone-built apartment in Prague. Alongside the illustrations, the book includes a heartfelt text written by the artist especially for this collection.

A truly special book - beautifully crafted in both texture and spirit.
Hardcover with a cloth spine, housed in a protective box sleeve.
Limited edition of 1,000 copies.
Design: Hideyuki Saito
Planning & Publication: gallery kasper
Editorial Support: Keiko Kawaguchi
Translation: Yuko Kawano
English Proofreading: James Rushford
Printing & Binding: LIVE ART BOOKS
Printed in Japan.
Format: 182mm × 257mm (Japanese B5 size) / 96 pages (72 pages in color + 24 pages in black and white)
Binding: Thread-sewn hardcover with cloth spine and slipcase-style jacket

Iku Dekune was born in Tokyo, Japan and graduated from Musashino Art University. Since 2022 she has lived and worked in Prague, Czech Republic. Iku’s first published book was her own fairy-tale story The Bath (1994). Her book illustrations have won multiple awards both in Europe and Japan, including the Grand Prix at the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava and the Japan Prize for Picture Books. Her cats, Sabinka and Makulka, feature often in her expressive watercolour paintings.