Illustrations by the Author, A SQUARE
Published by Dover Publications, New York published by Dover Publications; New York; 1952; sixth edition

Private Collection, US

Bound in white buffalo skin with onlays of goat and buffalo. Front cover has a raised sphere constructed from plastic lens and bass wood. Tooling in palladium with a series of line palettes and gouges. Palladium gilt edge with hand sewn headbands in polyester thread. Edge-to-edge doublures in white buffalo skin with white suede fly leaves. End paper pop-up constructed from Mohawk Superfine and Hahnemuhle Ingres Light Gray.

Book is housed in a clamshell box with goatskin leather spine. Title is palla¬dium tooled with a series of line palettes and gouges. Within clamshell box, the book is protected with a quarter leather chemise lined with white suede and a wooden block covered with Hahnemuhle Ingres Smoke and white suede to give clearance to the raised sphere.

20.1cm x 13.7cm x 1.9-3.1cm - Completed in 2012

• Exhibited in The Guild of Book Workers Annual Traveling Exhibit: Horizon (2012-2014) - Online Catalog
University of Kentucky, The Great Hall at the Margaret I. King Special Collections Library
Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections Exhibition Hall
University of Denver, Penrose Library
Loyola University, New Orleans, Visual Arts Gallery

Abbott's novella is an observation on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture set in a fictional two-dimensional world known as Flatland whose denizens are geometric figures which defines their place in the social ladder where women are depicted as lowly lines. We are guided through the text by a Square who dreams of other dimensions and challenges the authority of the high class Circle. As you move around the book, a sphere begins to emerge from the cover, illustrating the Square's discovery of the third dimension.

I aimed to challenge the horizon of a book cover by exploring three-dimensional possibilities.

Read about the binding process of this book on my blog.