The Tinklers Charts and Stories

This large-format book, with a white softcover and pages in many different colours, combines five publications by The Tinklers, a US musician and artist duo active in the 1980s, in a carefully considered yet easily accessible reprint edition. Using simple means of reproduction such as mimeographs and photocopiers, The Tinklers created illustrated story ‘books’, which they then ‘performed’ with music and sometimes exhibited as artworks. For this reprint, the techniques, materials, formats and sizes have been standardised. All the pages were photographed, with the drawn and handwritten content transferred to the new paper. The five original books are distinguished by simple, unified title pages and by the varied use of the numerous colour pages in each one, creating a very appealing rhythm. The matt recycled paper, which absorbs a lot of printer ink, is reminiscent of the original reproduction techniques, while the glossy cover with a specially coated spine represents a distinct visual element. The front and back covers feature black-and-white photographs of The Tinklers in performance, offering a concise context for the book’s contents. The photocopied aesthetic of the photos and the overlaid hand-printed stamp drawings pay further homage to The Tinklers’ artisanal productions. In this way, the book does more than rescue a unique artistic practice from obscurity, it also performatively translates it into the present. Despite the strong hand of the designer, everything feels completely natural.

Editors
Olivier Lebrun, Paris (FR) ; Urs Lehni, Zürich (CH)

Authors
Charles Brohawn, Chris Mason, Baltimore (US)

Design
Olivier Lebrun, Paris (FR); Urs Lehni, Zürich (CH)

Printing
Tallinna Raamatutrükikoda, Tallinn (EE)

Publisher
Rollo Press, Zürich (CH)

ISBN
978-3-906213-56-9