Konrad Bayer, das tote kind in der wiege
When my friend and colleague Manfred Prochotta died in 1991 at the age of 35, I wanted to make a book in his memory, and I came across Konrad Bayer’s
das tote kind in der wiege
(the dead child in the cradle). This short play is a dialogue between an old man and a girl, talking about a dead child. Fundamental things – sun and moon, bread and wine and blood, seized in staccato. I wanted to match the starkness of the archaic text with an intentionally sparse design. I printed the text in black on white Chromolux gloss paper, which I then crumpled. I smoothed out the sheets again before binding them, but the traces of the injury remained on the paper. The black cloth cover bears a title label that is attached with staples.
60 pages, white Chromolux gloss paper, hand-set, letterpress printed, cloth-over-board with stapled title label, 17 x 25.7 cm, 55 numbered and signed copies. Lahnstein 1991.