It is bitter to leave your home / Romano Hänni

Identifier:FA.SPS.2331

Dimensions:23.5 x 26.6 cm

Creation dates:2017

Subjects: artists' books, letterpress printing, slipcases

Description:Text in German, English, and Japanese. Hand-composed and handprinted. Letterpress printed on paper towels. Materials used: lead characters, synthetics and wood, brass lines and geometrical signs. Printing forms composed from individual parts and printed on a hand proofing press. Japanese text cast and composed in the type foundry Sasaki Katsuji in Tokyo. Bound by hand with thread. Dust jacket letterpress printed with titles and images on exterior, reverse side with additional text. Housed in a grey paper covered slipcase with title in the three languages on a white spine. Includes manufacturing process booklet: 12 pages, digital printing. Edition number 83 of 87.

The book concerns the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that occurred on March 11, 2011, and the ongoing impact of radioactive contamination.

"Overall production: Romano Hänni, Studio for Design, letterpress print shop ... Letterpress, hand proofing press, five-color .. 87 numbered copies (plus an additional 9 numbered copies made from proofs and superimpositions from selected printing forms; each page of this 9 books is unique)."--Title page verso

"Work on this book began in December 2013 ... and lasted until June 2017. The page format was determined by the paper: Paper towels, maxi roll; composition: 100% oxygen-bleached pulp (54 g/m2), wet strength additives, agents; roll length: 62.1 m, sheet size: about 23 x 26 cm, paper from responsible sources, FSC C017535. The type area is 40 x 40 Cicero (18 x 18 cm) = 4 squares comprising of 20 Cicero each or 400 squares comprising of 2 Cicero. The top margin is 3.5 cm, the bottom margin is 4.5 cm, the outside margin is 1.5 cm, the inside margin is 3.5 cm. The composing shop represents the available raw materials: lead characters, synthetics and wood, brass lines, and geometrical signs. The printing forms were composed from individual parts and printed on the hand proofing press. The Japanese text was casted and composed in the type foundry Sasaki Katsuji in Tokyo and delivered to Basel ... For most of the pages several printing forms and printing runs were needed. The body of the book was bound by hand with thread. Overall production time was approximately 1400 hours."--Colophon