22

The Tulse Luper Reprint or a Suitcase of Plans for the Publication of Tulse Luper: The Remake

'The idea to publish the Tulse Luper Reprint is emphatically not to aide communication. For a start, the print run would be only 92, the same as the number of reports it contains. Each volume would naturally be numbered. The whole run would be printed and bound by hand, illustrations and diagrams made using screen printing, lithography, relief printing and other techniques. For binding, imitation feathers suspended in a transparent, flexible bonding agent would cover the boards. No identifying text would be visible on the outside of the volume. As it is not intended for the commercial market, identifying text is superfluous. This reprint would take advantage of the inherent properties of materials which are closed to Internet publishing; tactile quality, levels of transparency, the thickness and density of materials. Each article would use paper, and other materials, most suited to its subject matter. The following are examples which have so far been proposed,

01. Notes to a Talk About Maps: Presented on paper on which is printed lines of latitude and longitude. Any accompanying maps are printed on transparent materials allowing the reader to both read the text and view the map without averting the eyes.

02. Who is Karen Eliot. Printed on cheap newspaper stock, then left in the open air for two months to capture the authentic aged newsprint feel. Hopefully the report will still be readable at the time of publication.

03. A Green Suitcase. Report written to simulate Tulse Luper's hand onto a stencil, then printed with green ink onto graph paper. A transcript is provided for those unaccustomed to Tulse's handwriting.

06. Ten Objects. Typographic experiments printed onto pornographic images which are believed to come from the Vatican.

07. Tulse Luper in Japan. Printed with gold ink onto rich, autumnal coloured rice paper in an ostentatious homage to Sei-Shonagon.

08. Ten Objects. A black and white chess board design forms the basis for this page. Each object description is presented in the white squares only. The print is very small making it difficult to read, but geometrically the page is pleasing to the eye.

09. A Suitcase of Reminiscences. Printed in red ink on waste paper scavenged from the Public Records Office at Kew, England. This page is currently awaiting security clearance.

10. A Suitcase of Luperisms. Another attempt to simulate Tulse's hand, in an informal notebook style presentation. Each Luperism is accompanied by a reproduction of a relevant sketch or doodle culled from Tulse's notes.

12. A Suitcase of Stolen Notices. The plans for this page have unexpectedly gone missing.

13. Physics in a Suitcase. To stand up to lab conditions this page is made from a wafer thin steel sheet printed with a specially prepared black indelible ink. In legibility tests this page withstood pressures up to 4500 psi.

14. A Suitcase of Sounds. This black vinyl page has nothing printed on it, but can be detached and played on a standard record player. The report is recited by an actor who sounds remarkably like (and even claims to be) Tulse Luper.

15. A Suitcase Filled with Death. Another black page which appears to have nothing printed on it. A closer look will reveal that the report is printed in bluish-black ink and decorated with embossed designs. A beautiful, but hard to read page.

16. A Suitcase of Letters. In an envelope stitched into the binding, reproductions of the letters are presented with original letterheads.

17. A Suitcase of Sand. Buff coloured card with granular material stuck to the surface is used for a deliberately abrasive series of pages. Virtually unreadable. For this reason a transcript is provided as well as a series of maps of the locations covered in the report.

19. A Suitcase of Correspondence. A long report printed on a series of white perforated pages watermarked with a translation of the correspondence between Vesalius and Oporinus. Illustrated with Renaissance iconography.

20. A Suitcase of Rubbish. Plans for this page have been withdrawn owing to complaints about the tasteless nature of the proposals.

21. Error. A Job application form for the VFI is bound into the volume at this point. The report for this suitcase is typed on the back of the form.'

Nigel Harris, VFI Japan, Aug 6, 1997

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Peter Greenaway

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