Book du jour - Here And There (Black Book)

Making this one book took nearly all day, and not just because of waiting for the glue to dry. It's the first of a series of "Black Books" for a group exhibition at Camberwell college library at the end of the month. We aren't confined to the display cases, so some of us are putting books on the open shelves, among the library books themselves. That way people can actually handle them - which is especially important for these Black Books.

The plan is to make half a dozen (I have a list...). This one sprang from nowhere on a Sunday morning, and it took so long to make because of the many decisions involved, decisions that will affect the rest of the series.

Size - this can be variable in every dimension.

Materials - the boards can be any thickness, weight, or material; the covering is always black bookcloth  - the unifying factor. I need to go buy several metres - each book takes quite a lot.

Title format - another unifying factor - this was the big decision, informed by many experiments. Using debossed lettering will keep the titles short. It's tricky to do, and I'll just have to be careful... Finding a font took a while - I'd like to use the same one for the series. Gill Sans Ultra Bold, with a bit of extra space between the letters, seems to work ok.

And the small matter of the contents - well, I have lots of ideas for the Black Books, and will make as many as time allows.

Hopefully the photo above showed the title - in some lighting conditions the reader will have to move the book to read it, the first step in interacting with the book.

A box takes longer to open than does a book ...

... and might not have as many "pages" as a traditional book ...

The spine awaits a Dewey Decimal number (as befits a library book)  - something in the 900s ... 910 perhaps, geography and travel?