The Art of Mechanical Reproduction

This book was designed around Walter Benjamin’s essay, “The Art of Mechanical Reproduction.” The essay explores the shift in perception that film and photography brought to the modern world, particularly in the visual arts. The essay was edited and reformatted into chapters for the book’s content. Each page was designed to fold out from 4x4 inches to 8x8 inches to embody the concept time and space; in particularly, it’s ability to expand and contract as a result of mechanical processes. Keeping with this theme the entire book can be compacted into a small square for pages to be read individually or pulled out into a long form to be viewed altogether. The book was printed at UHM and carefully folded and constructed by hand.