Multiple Discovery: new from Shift-lab

After three long years, I am thrilled to announce the release of a new Shift-lab project.

Multiple Discovery occurs when innovations are made independently and simultaneously in different locations. In this project, Shift-lab uses Multiple Discovery as a metaphor for our own remote, collaborative practice. Working with a common horizon line and color palette, we each developed imagery for this artist book in separate studios. Printed sheets were then exchanged in batches of ten. Individually, we wrote and printed text gathered from a shared collection of source material, then collated and folded our sheets into a unique set of ten copies. The resulting edition of fifty is made up of five variations, three of which are featured in handling videos below.

Letterpress and Riso printed on Zerkall Book and IBO. Covers are foil blocked Pergamenata. (Thanks John DeMerritt!) This project was designed, printed, and bound between 2019 and 2022. Dimensions: Height 11.5″, Width is variable between sub-editions.

Copies of Multiple Discovery are available to order for $800. Libraries or individuals who are interested in owning two or more variations will receive a discount. We will have these books at our table at the Codex Book Fair and Symposium in April. Come see us!

Sources for text and imagery include:
Birkeland, Kristian. The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition 1902-1903. Norway: H. Aschelhoug & Company, 1908.
Lemley, Mark A. “The Myth of the Sole Inventor.” Michigan Law Review, Volume 110. Issue 5 (2012) pp 710-760.
Rovelli, Carlo. The Order of Time, New York: Riverhead Books, 2018.
Solnit, Rebecca. River of Shadows, Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, New York: Viking, 2003.
Some images are “From The New York Public Library,” public domain
collections.