2018
The Book that Exploded
- Editorial Design
- Exhibition
- Experimental Design
- Visual Research
- Literature
- Conceptual Design
- Language
The Book That Exploded is an experimental editorial project exploring the relationship between language, communication, and material transformation. Inspired by William S. Burroughs’ The Ticket That Exploded and his theory of language as a virus, the research investigates what happens when a literary concept extends beyond the content of a book and becomes the methodology of the project itself.
The publication becomes the site of the experiment. Subjected to cutting, burning, gunfire, explosions, sealing, and other physical interventions, the book progressively abandons its original state. Physical transformation becomes a design methodology, with every intervention reshaping the object and introducing new layers of interpretation through material change.
Burroughs’ theory unfolds through the publication itself. As the book mutates, so does the reading experience. The text becomes increasingly fragmented, unstable, and open to reinterpretation, exposing communication as something continuously shaped by context, chance, and physical interaction rather than existing as a fixed and immutable construct.
The project challenges one of graphic design’s most fundamental assumptions: that communication should deliver a stable and unchanging message. The publication reveals meaning as something continuously negotiated through interaction, context, and interpretation. Graphic design becomes more than a vehicle for communication; it becomes a tool for investigation, generating knowledge through the act of making.
