Category: Bookmaking

Mix and Match Words

After making a mix-and-match book for a prompt challenge a few weeks ago, I wanted to explore how to do such a book with just text or words. The other day I found someone who had done just that — Yuka Petz in her book Noun. Below a picture of one of the spreads and her description of the book

Noun is a playful artist’s book about words and their definitions. It is like an exquisite corpse with words.

Starting with 27 real English words, each word and its definition has been divided into two parts. By turning the pages, you get to mix and match the word halves to create humorous and nonsensical new words and meanings.

With over 700 different combinations, this book is the perfect item for bibiophiles, lexicographers, writers, and any lover of words.

Here are a few examples of words and definitions you can put together:

whisper + umbrella = whisbrella: A low sibilant utterance for sheltering one from rain and sun.
muffin + tyrant = muffrant: A quick bread made of batter unrestrained by law or constitution.


Noun, Yuka Petz

See more pictures and more of Yuka’s work on her website and in her Etsy store.

Book Papers

Recently, Barbara Hauser wrote on a letterpress list I read

Can anyone suggest a text- or book-weight cotton paper similar to Hahnemühle Bugra, which is a mould-made 130 gsm laid paper and comes in a creamy white color. I’m looking for something to be dampened and printed with multiple passes using a 10-point rather delicate typeface. I’ve ordered some of the Hahnemühle to experiment with, but I’d prefer cotton. The Somerset Text Laid seems to have been discontinued (why?), and the Zerkall Book Laid is not quite as heavy as I’d like and is not 100% cotton.

She also posted the question on Briar Press. She took the suggestions (there are quite a few on the Briar Press discussion) and summarized them in the following table (bigger version on her flickr page.) She mentions a really nice Paper Comparison Chart from Daniel Smith that lists all sorts of papers, not just printing paper. (You can see Barbara’s letterpress work on her flickr photostream.)

Selected book- and text-weight papers tabulated by Barbara Hauser

Flower Maps

Over the past several weeks I’ve continued to play with a variation on the Turkish Map Fold. I thought an image that spanned the entire book might work well and revisited the pictures I took in Mt. Rainier National Park some years ago. The photos and structure fit a haiku I wrote last year, and I especially like the effect of printing photos on the reverse, giving the viewer something to look at on the underside of the folds. I was so pleased with the results that I’ve made an edition of 15. It’s called Flower Maps and you can see many more photos here.