A Hunger Artist
A Hunger Artist
A SHORT STORY BY FRANZ KAFKA⠀•⠀PENCIL ILLUSTRATIONS BY IRI SMITCH
On the centenary of Franz Kafka's death, we're pleased to announce the first private press edition of his masterpiece, A Hunger Artist.
This short story explores the life of an artist – an artist, of sorts. His art is starvation. He captivates audiences through feats of prolonged fasting with the existential danger inherent to his craft. With this enigmatic character, Kafka prods at the tensions between art, voyeurism, the pursuit of authenticity, and the loneliness one feels in the face of shifting public tides. Frustrated and under-appreciated, the hunger artist drives himself to death in the vainglorious pursuit of his strange artistic vision while the public gaze slowly turns away.
The story has been deftly illustrated by Iri Smitch, whose pencil drawings capture its ambiguous shades. Her twelve sketches have been etched onto magnesium plates and printed using a unique oil mix which, we think, replicates the subtleties of the original graphite. Letterpress is rarely seen in this manner.
COLOPHON
•⠀The twenty-seventh edition from No Reply, 2 0 2 4 – marking the centenary of Kafka’s death.
•⠀Measuring 7 ¼ by 10 ¼ inches, 3 2 pages.
•⠀Printed letterpress on a hand-operated Vandercook Universal I proofing press.
•⠀Hahnemühle Biblio mould-made text papers. Fabriano Tiziano endpapers.
•⠀A dozen pencil illustrations throughout, printed from etched magnesium plates.
•⠀Set in 1 4 - point Baskerville and 4 8 - point Victoria typefaces.
STANDARD
•⠀Limited to 1 6 0 numbered copies.
•⠀Hand-bound in a three piece Bradel binding, with gold tooling on the spine. The boards feature a previous draft of the “Hunger Artist” portrait illustration, printed letterpress from polymer, giving a comparison and contrast of the two platemaking methods.
DE LUXE
•⠀Lmited to 1 6 0 numbered copies.
•⠀Hand-bound in a three piece Bradel binding, with gold tooling on the spine. The boards are covered with paste papers, handmade at the press specially for the edition.
•⠀A frontispiece portrait of Franz Kafka, printed manually from a magnesium plate on Awagami Kitakata paper, is sewn into the book.
•⠀The book is housed in a handmade scarlet cloth slipcase.
ARTIST
•⠀Fifteen copies, each with a unique oil painting on the cover, can be found here.