On this map is written 'A Tale of Two Cities'
At a time when immediacy rules, 'I want it all and I want it now' prevails and use and throw away is encouraged as a form of quick replacement to avoid frustrations, can there be anything more subversive than defend the exclusive and the unique? Can there be anything more cheeky than saying here I am, as I consider that I have to be and not how I am pushed moved by inertia assumed to be good? Can there be something as interesting as betting on the beauty of art and the knowledge of literature and do it at an affordable price for the common mortals?
'Around the world in 80 days' looks like this on a print
All this, and something more, can be read between the lines of Project Gutenberg by Minimae , an initiative that condenses complete books of universal literature in delicious and beautiful prints that suppose an artistic reinterpretation of the classics.
Precisely, it is in our most universal classic, Don Quijote of La Mancha , where the origin of this project is located. Casually and without commercial intention, the brilliant hidalgo began to campaign for the ideas of Pepe Larraz, creative director from Project Gutenberg by Minimae. “My father had an edition of Don Quixote from 1700 in six volumes and he wanted to replicate the text of each volume on a sheet ”, explains to Traveler.es.
“When I did it I thought: ‘there are too many’. So I went on to compress it into three, but Don Quixote has two parts: 'Why not compress it into two?' The last step was to compress the complete text, the 377,033 words, in a sheet of 61x91 centimeters” , go on.
Once achieved, the processes seem easy and are counted on with the lightness of someone who knows they are calm for having overcome a challenge, but Seeing the first printed sheet of Don Quixote took Pepe 13 months. "Many printers rejected the work as 'impossible', we made two unsuccessful print runs of 100 copies each. On the third, the first edition of Don Quixote came out.”
This was three years ago and 23 works introduced, like a ship in a bottle, in their respective sheets, which have allowed them to change and give Project Gutenberg by Minimae a life of its own.
'Poet in New York' at the Chrysler Building
“Our first books were large format in terms of extension (Don Quixote, Ana Karenina, The Count of Monte Cristo, Ulysses...) and plain text, that is, there was no image on them. The only thing that could be seen was a dark spot in which, as you got closer, you could perceive a minimal typeface”, recalls Pepe.
After, the aesthetic part would gain weight and they opted for smaller books. This allowed them to abandon an initial format in which the extension of the work forced them to fill the entire sheet with the text and play with other designs in which beauty has a lot to say. It is the case of Poet in New York introduced in the silhouette of the Chrysler Building , the building that impressed Lorca when he arrived in the city back in 1929.
“The project itself is original and spectacular at the same time. But we do not want to remain in the surprise effect. We know that this poster was born to be hung on a wall, it cannot be boring or have an absurd or too obvious design. If aesthetics do not accompany originality, the project cannot survive. In addition, it is necessary that the representation of the sheet connects with the text of the book and that it does so in a subtle and intelligent way. That it is not understood at first sight, that it has to be explained”, reflects Pepe.
Thus, each new design represents a new creative challenge and, especially, a technical one "with the handicap that each book requires its own casuistry”.
Detail of 'Poet in New York'
And it is that, the only way to know if the book is going to be good is printing it, not doing tests. “Many times we are faced with our designs that, for technical reasons, we cannot print or that do not achieve the desired result when doing so. We have had to 'gobble up' many impressions because the book has not turned out well.
What's more, “there are very few printers capable of printing with quality or taking the risk of participating in such a job. Any minimum error in the file that we deliver supposes a small catastrophe” , he recounts.
And so, the creations of Project Gutenberg by Minimae take us on the adventures of Don Quijote of La Mancha until Moby-Dick , going by Around the world in 80 days, Journey to the center of the Earth or, the most recent, History of two cities . Soon they will launch Romeo and Juliet , his first commitment to relief; and they prepare too the jungle book.
To choose the titles that will be part of this collection, Pepe follows three criteria. First of all, that the book is not copyrighted. And it is that this initiative is based on the virtual megalibrary Project Gutenberg which publishes all existing works free of rights.
'Moby-Dick' made picture
“We start from the same philosophy. All our books are free of rights (a situation that occurs 75 or 80 years after the death of the author). From there everything changes. That's why we added 'By Minimae,'” he explains. “The second thing is that it is a book that I liked; and the third thing is that it has a commercial component, because there are a lot of books with which I feel identified and that I would love to publish, but I am sure that they would not have a commercial outlet”.
A commercial outlet that, in addition to the originality of the product, has two more allies: the exclusivity of their creations and the price. The sheets of Project Gutenberg by Minimae they are not mass produced. In fact, each design is usually printed 150 or 500 copies (there will be only 100 in the case of the upcoming Romeo and Juliet).
“ Minimae is an online platform for selling art through the web, we are not only dedicated to making books on a single page. We come from art and we move comfortably in unique works and limited editions. We don't like 'bulk art'. When you buy a Minimae book you know that it will be difficult for you to see it anywhere else. We seek exclusivity properly understood”, explains Pepe.
And what is exclusivity properly understood? The one that does not focus solely on the price, "but on the principle of scarcity: once the edition is finished you will never see it the same again" . In fact, Pepe defines Minimae as a "democratic art platform" and proof of this is the price of the Project Gutenberg prints, ranging between 32 and 45 euros.
Project Gutenberg by Minimae is beauty and aesthetic sense, but also literature. For this reason, because this is also about reading, they have developed this video in which It explains how to make our human eye perceive the texts housed in each sheet.