Complete in two pages
Kafka's short story "The Top"
Swap all the letters.

This work was created by cutting up two pages (the length of one sheet of paper) of the short story "Koma" from the paperback "Kafka Short Stories" (Iwanami Bunko, translated by Ikenuchi Ki), and randomly pasting them together with glue, without removing a single character.

This strange piece perfectly captures the unique feature of a book, which is that there is text on both the front and back of the page. It is sandwiched between thick acrylic panels so that it can be viewed from both sides.

It wasn't just any two pages (one piece of paper) that were chosen; what was important was that it was a short story whose story was completed within those two pages, and the works were chosen from those of Kafka, who left behind many short stories.

The story originally had a plot and flow, and meaningful words were printed on it. In the process of cutting out each character and pasting them together with glue, the characters were carefully combined so as not to create meaningful words, even by chance. The idea that the artist himself often talks about wanting to leave as little arbitrariness as possible is thoroughly implemented here as well.

For the author, Aya Koizumi, this experience once again made her feel the depth of the "sound" of the Japanese language, especially "hiragana." The same phonetic characters are too symbolic in English, and when written in kanji, they unintentionally become like patterns. It's interesting that in that respect, hiragana seemed to whisper in her ear.

From a design perspective, the area of the pages has been reduced by the amount of glue required for pasting them together, creating an irregular beauty. Although the amount of text itself has not changed, it creates a completely different, new landscape, like a mysterious document.

The specially made storage box with the artwork printed on it also has a beautiful appearance.


Text by Kenya Nakazawa (FRAGILE BOOKS)

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