Today, we celebrate Read A Book Day with a very interesting project and an equally unique story. Rather than focusing on reading a book, our desire is to delve into the behind-the-scenes of its construction. It’s a fascinating and meticulous process, unknown to most people. We are used to seeing a finished book, and seldom do we wonder what goes on behind it, what the process is that leads to the final product. We did this with the folks from Libri Finti Clandestini, an artistic collective that bases its work and research on the artist’s book. Through a true process of urban exploration, artists El Pacino, Aniv Delarev, and Yghor Kowalvsky seek paper materials in abandoned factories, archives, and printing laboratories, with the aim of creating books – hand-bound one by one, stamped and numbered – ranging from notebooks ready to be used and drawn in, to small print-run pop-up books. They also collaborate with other artists, exploring the fields of photography and typographic printing. After a brief preamble about the history of this collective, we will tell you how they made a book in one night and on board a train. Let’s discover it together.
What is an artist’s book?
Starting from the premise that a book is an object with infinite possibilities, both in terms of form and content, and is conceived as a container and disseminator of knowledge of any kind, it is almost a given that an artist would be fascinated by it and want to create one of their own. Since the last century, the artist’s book – understood as a form of artistic expression – has become widespread. Artists, especially during the avant-garde periods such as Dadaism and Surrealism, ventured into the creation of artist’s books, combining visual art and literature into a single object. Words merge with visual art. Drawings, engravings, collages, paintings, photographs engage in a dialogue with poetic text, reflections, or thoughts of the artist themselves. In contrast to mass-produced books, the artist’s book has the characteristic of being a unique piece or produced in limited editions. It is a free object that follows solely and exclusively the will of its creator. The structure and materials, such as format, layout, and typography, are experimental and challenge the conventions of traditional books.
Who produces artists’ books today?
With this question, we come to the point. In this technological age, it is increasingly rare to find entities that oversee the entire printing process from A to Z, and even rarer to find young artists fully devoted to the creation of artist’s books. In Milan, there exists a very interesting entity, both in terms of rarity and quality. This is Libri Finti Clandestini, as we previously mentioned, which is an artists’ collective established ten years ago that dedicates its entire research to this marvelous object, the book. All the while, they maintain anonymity, appearing on social media and in public strictly wearing amusing masks.
What exactly does the Libri Finti Clandestini collective do?
As you scroll through their Instagram feed and explore their website, it becomes immediately evident the meticulous care and precision that Libri Finti Clandestini invests in this project. In some photos, you can see the early 20th-century German letterpress printing machine, the Heidelberg Windmill, underscoring their strong connection to tradition rather than technology. However, in addition to keeping a manual and artisanal tradition “on the brink of extinction” alive, another fundamental aspect is sustainability. The collective initiates their process through urban explorations, actual “expeditions” inside old abandoned factories, archives, and printing laboratories, with the intention of reclaiming unused and forgotten paper sheets. On their website, in the “products” section, each item is accompanied by a description of the material. This way, the user has the opportunity to get closer to the process and thus realize the research and care that goes into each individual piece.
After a selection of material, the actual creative process begins in their workshops, one in Milan in the Isola area and the other in Saronno – in the latter ‘guests’ of 5X Letterpress, with whom a strong collaboration has been going on for several years now – where they take care of all the production phases in detail, taking from six months to a year, to finally arrive at the one-of-a-kind piece.
A crazy project: making a book in a few hours
Speaking with Libri Finti Clandestini, we were very impressed by their ‘mission’: to create a fanzine in a few hours and not in their workshop, but during a trip or in unusual places. Since January 2020, LFC has been working collectively with 5X Letterpress, Spazienne and Outis Manufacture to design and produce limited edition publishing products.
«Working on a book in one night, on a train, in an abandoned factory, with unconventional tools, exploring forgotten places in the urban landscape. This has always been the group’s mission: to produce in “crazy” situations, attempting new solutions each time and striving to achieve the best result. Trying to experiment as much as possible with regard to manufacturing and printing solutions..»
The most recent example is ‘Nightjet’, a micro-book made in just 12 hours on the Milan-Vienna night train he mission was accomplished by the three members of LFC, together with members of the collectives Spazienne, 5X Letterpress, Outis Manufacture and the artists Tanguy Bomboniera and Dr. Petronilla.
«On the night of May 25th, we boarded the Nightjet 235 train at Milan Rogoredo at 9:26 PM, headed for Vienna to participate in “Fanzineist Vienna.” We brought along paper, threads, needles, and with our iPhone along with an Epson Workforce 110 printer, we attempted a mission never before completed. The goal was to create a fanzine on a train during the 12-hour journey to Vienna! Scanning, photography, project layout, printing, binding, and trimming of the book, all accomplished on board in one night!»
The decision to produce these ‘micro’ books, LFC tell us, is a ploy that allows them to reduce production costs by focusing in this particular case more on content rather than quality. A ‘poor’ product but with a strong idea. A singular object – a small work of pocket art – entirely handmade, with elegant binding and produced in small print runs.
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Courtesy Libri Finti Clandestini
