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Artist Statement
Recently Ingram announced they were discontinuing distribution of mass market paperback books (MMPBs). Many large publishers responded to the lack of distribution by discontinuing production of the format. I don’t believe this is a death knell for the once ubiquitous format, but it has caused me to re-examine the many endearing qualities of MMPBs. These somewhat overbuilt copies of A Voyage To Arcturus attempt to celebrate some of the most attractive aspects (size, scalability) of “mass markets” while addressing some of the shortcomings (durability, reading mechanics). I chose this title from the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series published in the 1960s and 1970s because it is one of the first MMPBs that I truly fell in love with and is still among my favorite works in any genre.
Materials and Techniques
A Voyage to Arcturus was typeset and formatted digitally. Two copies were printed using pigment ink in an Epson EcoTank printer. Printed on Accent Warm White 24 lb. paper. The binding is a German style springback (as described by Peter D. Verheyen) with the heart of Gary Frost’s sewn-in boards structure. The bookcloth is housemade with a linen cotton blend as base. Endpapers are housemade pastepaper. This binding is slightly experimental and the spring of the book is a bit more aggressive than anticipated.