"I'M NOBODY"

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson had wonderful insight into the human condition. Her brilliant observation in this 1883 poem, “I am Nobody”, done with a few words is timeless - she could have written it in response to today’s social media. The book aims to reflect her succinct yet playful poetry with a design to match. It employs ghoulish Facebook and TikTok cyanotype printed emoji “moons”, for a visually striking and thought-provoking contemporary interpretation. Emojis have a long 950-year visual commentary history: back in medieval times communications workers then, scribes, often used pointed fingers (manicules) to mark an important passage of text. The inside front cover of this book uses one from a manuscript of the early 14th century, while the inside back cover shows a manicule used in letterpress printing from the early nineteen hundreds. Emily does Facebook  - welcome to the merry-go-round!