PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Redaction brings together a complex set of contents, contexts, and materials. An artist (Titus Kaphar) and his paintings, a poet (Reginald Dwayne Betts) and his poetry, and their collaborative series of screen prints (Redaction). The project examines the issue of money bail in the United States, where people who are arrested, but unable to afford bail, remain incarcerated even though they have been neither tried nor convicted.

The prints, originally exhibited at MoMA PS1, combine Titus’s etched portraits of incarcerated women and men with Dwayne’s poetry derived from selectively redacted legal documents, typeset in a project-specific “Redaction” font designed by Forest Young with Jeremy Mickel (MCKL Type). “Redaction as a tool of revelation,” as Dwayne describes it.

The fundamental idea was a mass-produced artist book: reproducing the artworks with an approach that mirrored the artistic process, rather than regular CMYK four-colour print reproduction. In close collaboration with lithographic experts Sebastiaan Hanekroot and Rossella Castello, the original silkscreened artworks were separated back out and processed for offset lithography with white and metallic inks printing on black paper.

Some separated layers were maintained as dividing sections, printed on translucent vellum to explode and expose the Redaction print structures, enabling readers to understand the components—the people, the words—that went into each print.

While the book has traditional hardcover elements—cloth, board, foilstamping, head and tail bands, cover overhang—it’s actually flexibound and thus designated “softcover.” For very good reason: in many prisons, hardcover books are still considered contraband.

BOOK INFORMATION

Trim Size: 9.7 × 12.3 in.

Number of Pages: 160

Binding Method: Casebound section-sewn cold glue

Paper: Fedrigoni Sirio Black 140 gsm, Fedrigoni Arena Rough White 120 gsm, Fedrigoni Golden Star K 110 gsm, Sappi Magno Gloss 150 gsm, Arctic Volume White 130 gsm

Typefaces: Redaction (custom for the project)

CREDIT INFORMATION

Creative Director: James Goggin, Forest Young

Art Director:

Book Designer: James Goggin, Amanda Barrow

Jacket/Cover Designer: James Goggin

Illustrator:

Photographer:

Picture Editor:

Production Director:

Production Coordinator:

Production Artist:

Other Credits: James Goggin – Editor; Forest Young – Editor; Sarah Suzuki – Writer; Jeremy Mickel – Type Design; Forest Young – Type Design; Sebastiaan Hanekroot – Lithographer; Rossella Castello – Lithographer

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