I am extremely excited to announce my involvement in a new collaboration. Beck and I from Harebrained Press are joining forces with Ampersand Book Studio all the way from Arizona to create a highly decorative fine press printed edition of the mysterious and humorous Jorge Luis Borges' "Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge"
What is the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge? I asked the same question when approached by Tristan to consider the collaboration. Essentially it is a fictional list of classifications for the animal kingdom. However there is a twist. This system is not a straight forward 'Mammals, Reptiles etc. No, this list divides the kingdom into possibly the most bizarre set of categories I have ever heard of. I was instantly intrigued. Here's the official announcement:
What's my role in this project? I am going to create a series of engravings that are our interpretation of each category of the taxonomy. This process so far has been about as open ended and subjective as you can imagine.
Here are some early conceptual images. I will share my process in more detail in the coming months.
Have a great day.
Kain