Book Shaped Objects & How My Plans Have Survived First Contact
In February I blogged about my publishing schedule for the year. I laid it out so:
- March - Zine
- June - Zine
- July - **Book**
- September - Zine
- October - **Book**
- December - Zine
It's now June, spring is easing into summer, and it's time to take stock. By now I should have published one zine, have another nearly done, and have made some decent progress on the book. As an old Prussian general once said,
"Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus."
Or to misquote Mike Tyson, "everyone has a plan – until they get punched in the face" All that's to say is that what I've made in the four months doesn't line up with my plan. Turns out, I'm a little ahead of schedule.
In the same blogpost linked above I shared the zine I made at a risoprint workshop. As I said at the time, I like the zine, and I'm proud of what I made while learning how to risoprint, but it's not quite up to snuff, IMHO. Still, my first zine since highschool? I'm feeling pretty good about it. And it was a month ahead of schedule. Win Nr. 01.
Later in Feburary and in March I blogged about what I thought was going to be my first book. It wasn't. The story, in short, is that didn't like my first idea at all. Conceptually I still find it interesting, but making the book (in this case it was to be boxed rather than bound) was unnecessecarily complicated. The process I set out for myself became cumbersome and, other than as an intellectual exercise, it was unclear to me how it was helping. I came out of that project with one collage I like, but no idea what the book project was now going to be.
So I decided to simply bind a few small collages together and see what happened.
The result,
"Seven Compositions from 20 Pieces of Found Paper".
I'm pretty pleased with this book, to be honest. It's far from perfect and I'd remake several of the collages and re-letter the entire book were I to give it a second draft but, as a book-shaped object, it works for me. Working at a smaller scale, each collage is around 10cm x 10cm on 14cm x 14cm boards, was challenging but the final product fits nicely in your hands. It feels good. Turning the pages is satisfying. It feels intentional. The collages themselves could be more engaging and the balance of writing (3-6 words per page) and image isn't perfect, but it's a solid step towards a better book. Plus I made it in March, two months early :) Does the book have two different titles? Yes. Like I said, some things would change in a second draft.
What's exciting to me is that when I hold this book (now almost three months after I made it), I'm thinking of the next book. I'm envisioning ways to make it better and more interesting. It's not inert. It's asking me questions. I'm super-excited for the next book.
Spoiler alert: It already exists and I'll blog about it soon.