Farewell 别

Farewell is a handmade book with a limited edition. It looks like a small white box (115*160*35mm) from the outside. After the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, I was invited by Zizai, an organization specializing in movable type printing, to create this conceptual book with writer Peng Cheng. In his essay, Peng describes many human emotions related to “farewell”. A number of ancients scholars, through poems and songs, expressed their sadness and anxiety when experiencing separation from loved ones. The pandemic distanced us with our families and friends in different places and made people can’t gather together as usual. We all experienced or witnessed many stories of farewells. After the fight against the pandemic, when we finally meet again and return back to our normal lives, we feel merrier than ever before. The characters are printed on crumpled paper by the technique of movable type with a strong force almost penetrated through the paper. The book is bound manually with a packet of soft tissue embedded in its outside box, which reflects the sadness and joy of “farewell” through design and the choice of materials.

《别》是一本手制书，限量发行。它的外形是一个小巧的白色盒子（115*160*35mm）。疫情爆发后，我受到专注于活字印刷的机构“字在”的邀请，与作家彭程共同创作了这件概念书籍作品。彭程以“别”作为主题进行了创作，在他的文章里，描述了人类有关“别”的诸多情绪，“别”是离情别绪，古人通过诗词歌赋表达了由离别这一情景所引发的一系列忧伤惆怅。疫情爆发，让经常能聚在一起的至亲好友相隔两地，无法见面，我们也经历与目睹了一系列离别的情景。当然，疫情结束后，我们再次相聚，回归日常，“别”也有久别重逢的喜悦。 该书的文字通过活字印刷的方式印制在被揉皱后的纸张上，力透纸背。并用手工装订的方式完成，在这本书籍的形态上，除了文本部分以外，盒内嵌入了一包柔软的纸巾，在设计表达与材料选择上，无不体现了“别”的忧伤与喜悦的情绪。