The accordion titled “Epilogue from Yoko Tawada’s ‘Canned Foreign’” (in the original German) includes 24 double-page spreads and 2 cover pages, each featuring one letter of the alphabet, so that all 26 letters of the alphabet from A to Z are represented by the end. Each letter is in a different typeface and is combined with a QR code. At first glance, there does not seem to be any text in the book. Instead, the 26 QR codes take the reader to Yoko Tawada’s text “Das Fremde aus der Dose, Epilog,” which is divided into 26 sections that can be accessed and read online via the links. Each text section is set in the same typeface as the letter on the page that provided its QR code. The 26 QR codes allow the entire text to be read chronologically from A to Z.

The Japanese author, who lives in Germany, writes about the clashes between two cultures, about different writing systems, about legibility and illiteracy and her perception of everyday European life: “In any city one finds a surprisingly large number of people who cannot read. Some of them are still too young, others simply refuse to learn the letters of the alphabet. There are also a good many tourists and workers from other countries who live with a different set of characters altogether. In their eyes, the image of the city seems enigmatic, veiled.”

In a sense, the accordion is also a “type specimen book.” It contains various Serif, Slab-serif and Sans-serif typefaces, Blackletter and Decorative fonts and Script typefaces. The legal notice, inside the clamshell box, provides a QR code to view a list of the fonts used. The accordion combines old and new technologies, traditional letterpress printing and digital QR technology.

The letters and QR codes were letterpress printed from polymer plates, double-sided accordion (3.77 meters when extended) in a white printed fabric clamshell box, 16.1 x 28.1 x 2.6 cm, 48 pages, 26 numbered and signed copies, Flörsheim 2025

next