Blisner, IL examines the effects of deindustrialization in a Rust Belt town of Southern Illinois. Drawn from a variety of towns, Blisner as a town serves to function as a representation of the ubiquitous stagnation experienced across the state. Images capture the veneer of a once industrially-prosperous moment, using stillness, repetition and inversion to draw out the malaise of small-town America.
The final book published by fourteen-nineteen, the predecessor of Loose Joints, Blisner evolved as a book through conversation and collaboration between many voices. The resulting book plays upon its own conditions of production and classification, turning its' cataloguing data into a design feature and playfully substituting the spine text for an analogous phrase to the book's actual title.
fourteen-nineteen, 2014
Designed by Morgan Brill & Daniel Shea
Art Direction Lewis Chaplin & Alex F. Webb
192 pages, 97 color plates, 180 × 250 mm
Embossed clothbound hardcover with multiple paper stocks
With an essay by Walter Benn Michaels
978-0-9573810-3-2
Book Design, Editing, Production
Related Projects:
