MADAME BOVARY
Book Redesign
DURATION Four months
PROJECT BRIEF The objective of this project was to take a book that had been banned in the past and redesign it with your own twist.
BACKGROUND
Madame Bovary was banned for overt sexuality and undermining traditional values. The story revolves around a young woman, Emma, who is in an unsatisfying marriage, in which she dreams about living in a big city with a lot of money. Her husband is rather clueless about her feelings and is unaware of her dissatisfaction. She ends up having two affairs, but in the end, she is out of money, and both the men left her. Feeling like she is out of options, she commits suicide.
OVERVIEW
This project involved choosing a book from a list of banned books and applying a modern approach. For this project, I decided to redesign the novel Madame Bovary. Once I developed a concept, I designed the book, printed it, and then produced a completed hand-bound book. The project required research, in-depth consideration of type, and careful craftsmanship.
RESEARCH
The first step of my project involved researching the books on the list of banned books. I love to read and wanted to do a book that I had read in the past, as I thought that may help me better understand the concepts. I narrowed it down to two of the works on the list: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibson. I have read both of these works in the past and thoroughly enjoyed them. However, Madame Bovary was the piece I wanted to do more, as I had just read it six months prior, and it had left a lasting impact on me.
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The next part of the research involved understanding why Madame Bovary was banned. Through my research, I realized that the way Emma was portrayed in the novel was unlike anything before. Audiences were shocked and the book was eventually banned because it was considered to be undermining traditional values of the time.
STRATEGY AND DESIGN
PHASE 1 | Approach
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I decided to go with an approach where I showed two perspectives. All chapters of the book would appear twice, but each written with a different perspective. Half the chapters would appear as they do in the original text, and the other half would examine a hypothetical situation in which Madame Bovary was a man. This approach allowed me to explore the differences in gender role stereotypes and expectations between men and women. I chose a few relevant chapters so that I could focus on specific aspects of the story. I wanted to show how gender stereotypes and norms had made Emma’s story much different than how it would have been if she were a man.
PHASE 2 | Design
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My redesign of the book put a lot of focus on the typographic elements, as well as the colors. When choosing my fonts, I chose a total of three, which was a bold but necessary choice. I wanted to use Baskerville for the chapters in which Emma is a man and Mrs. Eaves for the original chapters. Baskerville is a typeface created by John Baskerville, a printer and type designer of the 1700s. Mrs. Eaves is a typeface designed by Zuzana Licko in 1996. The font is named after Sarah Eaves, who was John Baskerville’s mistress, helpmate, and eventual wife.
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Given that a large part of Madame Bovary is about marriage, love, and affairs, I believe these typefaces worked well together. I also made this choice to show the difference in societal reactions to affairs based on gender. In the novel, Madame Bovary’s affairs led to a miserable death, while John Baskerville’s affair led to a happy marriage, and continued success. I used 47 Frutiger Light to tie the typefaces together and for parts of the book that were gender neutral or needed to be consistent throughout the entire book, such as the running header.
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For a color scheme, I chose a muted pink and blue. I used blue to represent Madame Bovary and pink to represent Monsieur Bovary. I used this color palette to challenge current gender stereotypes when it comes to color, and because during this time period blue was seen as more feminine while pink/red was seen as more masculine. The rest of the book uses white and white space to keep it neutral and make the colors choices pop more.
PHASE 3 | Production
The final phase of this project was the actual production of the book. The book production required the book to be printed and separated into signatures. From there, it was sewn and glued.
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For the endpapers, I chose a white, almost cobble-stone looking paper. I wanted to use white as it was neutral and did not take away from the colors used throughout the book. The dust-jacket was printed on Polypro paper. This paper is very soft and durable, as it is hard to rip by hand.
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CHALLENGES
The primary challenge of this project was the production aspect. It was much harder than I initially anticipated actually to cut, bind, and glue the book together. It was a time-time-consuming process that required the utmost patience.
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Another challenge was formatting the book, a process I didn’t have prior experience doing. It took a lot of practice and refinement to ensure the text was easy to read, not too big nor too small, and that the margins assisted the readability.
EFFECTIVENESS
The final product was very successful. I made two books during the process, and both turned out well. They were durable and well-sewn.