Book Swap: Something New

On June 17th a book made by Rachel reached me. We both participated in the swap at the book arts forum. I blogged about my contribution here.

On said Wednesday the delivery man from a foreign shipping company handed me a grey and red New Zealand Post bag (I always love to look at the foreign packaging, too). I was briefly amused by the notice that it’s forbidden to send prohibited items in this bag and then cut it open. Inside the padded envelope was a huge (10″ x 10″) thing that I – clever as I am – immediately identified as a book wrapped in more protective wrapping. Already unwrapping it was a tactile pleasure. It took me a while to get the plastics off and I could feel interesting bumps underneath my fingertips, getting ever more curious.

And when finally uncovered I found this Coptic bound book. As mentioned above the covers are 25cm x 25cm (10″ x 10″) Lego construction boards. Inside are estimated 160 pages from a white paper that feels thicker and heavier than my usual office paper. I can’t identify it as a specific paper, though. It is bound not with a thread but with a white narrow ribbon whose ends are left long and peep out of the book.

She wrote herself about her book here.