The Metamorphoses
Personal, 2003
In addition to my graphic design practice, I design and publish small runs of hand-bound books. In this case, I put together an edition of The Metamorphoses, the Greek epic poem by Ovid, in its original Latin. Also included is an English prose translation by A.S. Klein, a scholar and hobbyist-translator who publishes his work on the internet for free. The design of the book reflects my philosophy on translated works, especially poems: the reader can never fully experience the work by reading the translation. I split the two physically, so that the Latin and English texts exist as two books in a single binding, with the frontmatter spanning the entire length. This way, the book can be experienced in many ways. One can read the entire book straight through in Latin or English. Those who aren’t yet fluent in Latin can keep the translated text open concurrently with the Latin to help with difficult passages. The books were printed on a laser printer in octavo signatures, and folded, sewn, and case-bound by hand.
