Look at what happened to our art book printing of End Pages by Nichts Man. We sent Nick Herman, publisher of Ante Projects, a pristine run of books, and he in turn collaborated with Mr. Man to produce the books by completely soaking them in vats of ink. Now available for purchase as objets d’art at the Hammer Museum bookstore in Los Angeles.

More on his process below the photo!

From Ante Projects:

End Pages is a objet d’art created by the artist Nichts Man. Inspired by the blank pages found at the end of traditional print publications End Pages is a large book containing nothing but the stains and marks of its making embedded on the page after it has been soaked in repeated baths of various CMYK inks. CMYK describes the color system used in standard book printing. End Pages queries the meaninglessness of the printed word and the ephemerality of all things. Because of the artist’s process of soaking the books by hand, each one is unique. Produced in a signed edition of 25.

This was fun project for Bookmobile. We knew what would happen to the book from the beginning, and we sent a variety of laminated cover samples so the good people at Ante Projects could see what would absorb the ink best. We’re looking forward to seeing what this interesting art press has in store for us next—we’ll keep you posted too.

What other creative ideas for print books have we seen lately?

Great things with translucent vellum stock: we’ve produced a translucent vellum dust jacket on a paperback (Parts of Speech by Chax Press), translucent vellum interior page inserts that overlay on maps (Useful Knowledge: A Genealogy of Shares by Jena Osman, for the 200th Anniversary Year of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia), and a translucent vellum dust jacket on a hardcover (By Way of Passing by Shechem Press).

More embossing and debossing on paperback covers: blind embossing on a printed card stock cover (we used to be generals by further other bookworks), embossing and French flaps, and debossing.

Contact me, Nicole Baxter, and let me know what you want to try on your next print run!