Deep Sea

Growing up by the beach, this book grew out of my own memories of the ocean, a place that has always felt like both mystery and home. I wanted it to feel like something precious you could hold in your hands, so I housed it in a handmade blue box that reminds me of both a treasure chest and a specimen case. The structure itself blends accordion folds with Turkish map folds, so that reading it feels a little like the tide—pages opening, collapsing, and spilling into one another. It features two linocut pages of coral and shells on thin tissue paper, catching light and shadow in a way that moves like reflections on the surface of the sea. Four risograph pages bring in another rhythm: shells, faces, plants, fish, and crustaceans drifting into view, their soft misregistrations echoing the way water blurs, distorts, and shifts what underneath.

The folds and the structure of the book itself are meant to emulate the sensation of diving—you move through layers as though descending into the water, where light shifts and different creatures live at different depths. Each time you open it, you’re meant to discover something new, just beneath the surface.

The Process

Here’s a look into the printing process: I was drawn to Turkish map folding and the way the folds created interesting shadows on the page so I experimented with it to see what it would look like in a book. It was clear that this would be a good fit for the concept of the bok. This is an early sample:

I decided an accordion-style book within the box would work well with the folded pages to allow each to be view fully when pulled out and compress nicely together when put back in. I did a full mock-up of the book to make sure I had the correct dimensions for the pages and box.

After that, I began working on the imagery. I cut the linoleum blocks and completed the reliefs before finalizing my designs for the riso-prints in Photoshop. Once everything was printed, I assembled the book.