Table of Contents:
a book, of sorts
An Atlas
TABLE OF CONTENTS: AN ATLAS (2021)
or 42 variations on the table of contentsor a somewhat useful guide to 7 texts
A recursive book made up simply and solely of tables of contents. Exploring the contents page as a meaningful device, this book plays with the otherwise fixed structure of the table of contents, re-imagining it as (amongst other things) a menu, a bookmark, a tumble through wonderland, a graph, and a receipt...
Starting from the point that the table of contents is a device, a navigational guide; a map. A map is a device, that shifts and morphs depending on the experience it is meant to be used for. Reading is a journey, how then might our reading-maps represent that?
Curated into this tongue-in-cheek book that offers a thorough investigation into the form, function, and potential of the ubiquitous table of contents structure.
98 pages | 195mm x 297mm x 25mm | Hardback
[cont] ︎
I. A LATERAL STUDY
The first half of the book explores contents through other sources, that can be thought of as being a list of ‘contents’: menus, recipes, albums, and various graphs.
Each iteration then presents a different variation on how the table of contents can be structured and what the table of contents could contain (descriptions, time markings, instructions...).
By detaching the book from its linear and chronological pretense, what new ways of conceptualising the book and the reading experience are brought to surface?
A list
The first half of the book explores contents through other sources, that can be thought of as being a list of ‘contents’: menus, recipes, albums, and various graphs.
Each iteration then presents a different variation on how the table of contents can be structured and what the table of contents could contain (descriptions, time markings, instructions...).
By detaching the book from its linear and chronological pretense, what new ways of conceptualising the book and the reading experience are brought to surface?
A list
by any other order,
would still be a list
...?
[cont] ︎
II. BOOK by BOOK
The second half of the book designs contents pages for specific texts. Taking into account that often fiction books do not require? a table of contents, these ask instead what other elements the contents page could be used to highlight.
Featuring: a schematic drawing for Kafka on the Shore, a nonsensical plot visualisation for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a temporal overview for Ulysses, a customisable graph for Mina Loy’s poetry collection The Lost Lunar Baedeker...
The second half of the book designs contents pages for specific texts. Taking into account that often fiction books do not require? a table of contents, these ask instead what other elements the contents page could be used to highlight.
Featuring: a schematic drawing for Kafka on the Shore, a nonsensical plot visualisation for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a temporal overview for Ulysses, a customisable graph for Mina Loy’s poetry collection The Lost Lunar Baedeker...
[cont] ︎
III. THE BOOK ITSELF
These pages are then collected into a recursive book of table of contents. The paratextual elements of the book — the colophon, the index, etc. are all further iterations of the table of contents.
The book comes with the table of contents on a bookmark (isn’t that handy?), and offers guidance about each page via the headers.
The exploration of forms extends to the paper stock, which changes page to page depending on the thematic content.
As a final nod to its recursive structure, the book features three-embedded covers, each providing an alternate title to the book.
These pages are then collected into a recursive book of table of contents. The paratextual elements of the book — the colophon, the index, etc. are all further iterations of the table of contents.
The book comes with the table of contents on a bookmark (isn’t that handy?), and offers guidance about each page via the headers.
The exploration of forms extends to the paper stock, which changes page to page depending on the thematic content.
As a final nod to its recursive structure, the book features three-embedded covers, each providing an alternate title to the book.
Minuet Workshop
by Stephanie Jin
by Stephanie Jin
Minuet Workshop is a graphic design, research, and bookbinding practice. A book(ish), typ0graphic playground, this practice experiments with, explores, and playfully interrogates the intersections between graphic design, language, and literature.
(mi-new-ette)
work/shop
work/shop
