To celebrate the release of my major label book Volume: Writings on Graphic Design, Music, Art, and Culture, I have produced a new hand-made letter-pressed 12-page artist book, Six Secrets of the Hexahexaflexagon. The chapbook is meant as a “bonus single” to Volume, and features alternate origin stories for the hexahexaflexagon, emblem of Ephemeral States. The book is also offered as a fundraiser for the Robert McCullough Endowed Prize to benefit Old Dominion University graphic design students. The chapbook price is $12 (postage and handling included) with all proceeds going to the Scholarship. To purchase a copy, go here.
Six Secrets of the Hexahexaflexagon is an edition of 36 (each signed and numbered), set by hand in Garamond type, with text pages printed on Mohawk Superfine paper by a hand-cranked Vandercook SP-20 Test Press. Binding is hand-sewn with double-stitched florescent (green, orange, pink) fabric thread. Each wrap-around cover is unique to the book, taken from offset-lithographed make-ready sheets with six hand-die-cut circles in different patterns. Each booklet comes with three unique hexahexaflexagons made from a variety of repurposed papers sporting original and offset-printed graphics. Pix of printing in process can be seen here. Pix of sample booklets and hexas can be found here.
Thanks to Gale Flax (bookmaking artist extraordinaire) for her guidance and assistance with all steps in the process, and to Nikki Webb and Ken Daley for further proofreading and printing help.