This project consists of two volumes with a text excerpt from Michel Butor. The volume “Alpha” contains the French original, “Itinéraire – Les Bibliothèques” [Itineraries – The Libraries], and the volume “Beta” contains the German translation. The text, which paints a portrait of a universal library, could fit on a single page in each volume, but instead it is broken down into its letter components. In the spirit of Jorge Luis Borges’ “Library of Babel,” which he describes as a universal library containing every imaginable book, each of the 26 letters that make up the text is printed separately on its own page in each volume. The first page features all of the A/a letters, the second page all of the B/b letters, etc. Each letter is in the same position that it would have on a complete printed page. Because of the transparency of the cellophane pages, the entire text can be read on the first page. Theoretically, the raw material of the separated 26 letters could be used to create any other possible text.

Another aspect of this book project is the possibility of comparing two languages. If the reader pages through both volumes at the same time, it is possible to compare how frequently various letters appear in each language. 

Computer typesetting (Thesis TheMix), text letterpress printed with polymer plates, cellophane paper (40 g/qm), 2 booklets with printed jackets housed in acrylic glass slipcase, each 48 pages, 20.3 × 28.6 cm, each 35 numbered and signed copies, Flörsheim 2017

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