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“A Descent into the Maelström” is a short story by Edgar Allen Poe about a journalist’s trip to Scandinavia and his retelling of a fisherman’s harrowing tale of shipwreck. After losing his brother to the maelström and spending hours treading water in the frigid sea, the fisherman compares the water’s surface to the surface of the moon.
The design and construction of this handmade book reflect the desolation, silent panic and sterility of the story. Retold through the words of the journalist, the story has a distance and clinical evaluation in stark contrast with the experience of the fisherman, wrought with emotion. The book was printed using three printing techniques — inkjet, letterpress and screen printing — and bound by hand.
Poe's writing needs very little embellishment. In fact, I sought to strip back the design of the text to expose the true and beautiful prose, giving the standout phrases and sentences the space they needed.
I bound the book by hand using a standard case binding. I also built a book box to keep the book safe and dust-free.
The choice to use three printing techniques added variety and texture to a relatively sparse typographic treatment. The intentional simplicity of the single weight and size of Avenir allowed the tactile differences in the printing techniques to shine through. The glittering silver ink of the screened type and the material impact of the pressed type add a warmth and human layer to a very sterile design and construction.