A to Z about books.
« Buch-Elemente von A bis Z »
2014

The book is surrounded on all four sides by calm red paper, and the beauty of the "straight lines and perpendicular lines" that are considered essential elements of what is now considered a book stands out. This is a work that is worthy of being called orthodox among the artist's works. You can fully enjoy the orthodox bookbinding and printing techniques that have been handed down in Germany for generations.

The title translates to "A to Z of Books" in Japanese, and as the title suggests, the content is a collection of words related to bookmaking and books, categorized by their initials from A to Z.
For example, D is printed with "Druckvemerk" which means "stamp", and E is printed with "Exlibris" which means "bookplate". The Y page is a little different, and it is printed with "Yashi", the nickname of Yasutomo Ota during his time in Germany. Because the person himself is indispensable to the making of a book.

The beautiful weave of the spine is the result of intricate thread binding techniques. It is an advanced form of Coptic binding and is an old binding method, but the name is unclear. It is easy to open and has excellent durability, so it appears frequently in Yasutomo Ota's works. He says that he likes the intuitive act of punching holes in a single sheet of paper and binding it together, rather than binding quires together.

The author of this work is based in Munich, Germany.Letterpress Printing Workshop FliegenkopfIt is one of the few works I have produced. I used two types of type, wood type and lead type. The wood type prints large capital letters of the alphabet, and the lead type prints several concepts and keywords arranged around them. Each page is also a composed typographical expression.

Each page of the work is made using a heavy core, giving it a solid, weighty physical form. When you hold it in your hand, it feels as heavy as a stone, and from the perspective of tracing the history of books back through its contents, which are simply composed of text, this book could be said to be a paper monument inscribed with the history of books.