The Decay of Reality Book
December 2021
59 page hardcover hand-bound book; writing, book design, book-binding
Read the digital book.
The Decay of Reality is an essay written by myself in response to Oscar Wilde’s The Decay of Lying. In his essay, Wilde suggests that lying in art is essential as art imitates life. Taking these ideas into account, The Decay of Reality questions if modern technology, such as augmented reality, has allowed us to lie in art in extreme ways that have negative impacts on life.
Using portraiture as an example, the book takes the reader through the advances in lying when portraying the face. From painting to Spark AR filters, how has inaccurate portrayals of the human face impacted us?
After completing the writing, I designed each page with dynamic type layout and imagery relevant to the words written. I took heavy inspiration from Marshall McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage and Benjamin Zephaniah’s Talking Turkeys as both books present carefully thoughout playful typography and imagery.
Next, I printed it on 130 gsm Redeem paper and hand-binded and glued it using the French link stitch method. I created the hardcover by wrapping greyboard with black book cloth and UV printed the front for subtle distressed gloss text. Finally, I printed a book jacket/belly.
︎︎︎ A look into my Illustrator board whilst designing the pages.
︎︎︎ Annotations of the final design spreads.
︎︎︎ Final book physical flipthrough.