DESIRES

printmaking | bookmaking | letterpress 

de·sire | /dəˈzī(ə)r/ | a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. Your deepest desires are hopes and dreams that you hold close to you. I tested the waters and asked my closest friends and acquaintances to write down and expose their deepest desires. You'd think people would be hesitant to not only reveal their deepest desires to others but to also write them down. Surprisingly, no one refused to participate. There were some who knew exactly what their desires were, but there were many who really had to think about it. Some desires were funny, like "to eat tacos and smoothies every day". Some were simple, like "to get an A in Chemistry". Well, actually that one is very hard. But some were very deep, like "to have a baby" when you know you will never be able to get pregnant. These desires were the subject of what you see below. A variety of printmaking techniques were used to produce this handmade Turkish map fold inspired book. The book was printed using a Vandercook No. 3 Proof Press from the 1930s. Typesetting was used for the cover and the quote on the first page. I wanted the personality and emotion from my participants to be shown in this book. So for the second page, a polymer plate was used for the desires to keep the handwriting of the desire's owner. For the third page, I illustrated the desires using a 3 layer reductive relief printing technique on a linoleum block.