Warning! Real Books Were Harmed in the Making of This Video is how this trailer begins and boy they ain’t kidding.
For his latest book, BLANK, published by the exciting new Seattle-based publisher Jaded Ibis Press, artist Davis Schneiderman and friends broke out the hardware and annihilated a bunch of books (and almost a Kindle).
Though a bit over the top; the shock factor is sure to send quivers down the spines of the some book lovers, the reality of modern-day publishing is one of waste and destruction. As the publisher points out:
Each year in the U.S. alone hundreds of thousands of new titles are published by traditional printing methods; that is, in bulk quantities. An average of 150,000 multiplied by an average print run of 5,000, multiplied by an average of 200 pages per book equals nearly 150 Billion (150,000,000,000) pages annually, plus book covers and jackets.
Half of these books will be returned to their publisher and destroyed or liquidated. Those that cannot be liquidated will also be destroyed.
In the video one sees the resulting pulp from the massacre being used to make the paper for the book.
The tag line for Jaded Ibis Press reads: sustainable literature by digital means. They are aiming to be the cream of the Print on Demand crop.
Each publication is offered in three editions: a quality paperback, a digital edition, and a fine art limited edition. Their mission is to “facilitate the convergence of diverse media and art forms, and give wide exposure to literary, visual and musical artists of exceptional talent” The writers, artists and musician’s are all compensated well above the industry norm. For this book the author is donating 50% of his proceeds to The Vanuatu Pacifica Project and Tanna Center for The Arts, an artist colony on the island of Tanna in the South Pacific.
Here is a page form the limited edition. It features an embedded bamboo flash drive containing DJ Spooky’s remix of Bach’s Goldberg Variations 1 & 3, written especially for the book.
For more on the Press and its founder Debra Di Blasi see Paul Constant’s worthy profile Show Me Something New: Jaded Ibis Press is Dragging the Book Into the Future which appeared in the Stranger earlier this month.