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Pas de Deux

Item date(s): March 2022

Tatjana Bergelt
Maria Appelberg - (designed by)
Tume Vuorenmaa - (printed by)
Vladimar Nabokov - (text by)

Pages: unpaged
Size: Box = 295 x 372mm
Binding: See notes.
Language: English; Russian
Inscription: Signed by the artist
Edition: #7/22

Place publication: Helsinki, Finland
Publisher: Kone Foundation

Additional notes:
Innovative design with a right and left spine but common back cover, folded towards the middle, the former stitch bound and the latter Japanese stab bound. The title flows across both closed covers. The box is contained in a blue box which is larger than the book which fits on top of the space beneath, making it more substantial.

Each side of the book ends with a seven-page map, being a leporello, before the colophon, in English and Russian, on the final page.

Photo collage, ink-jet, blind embossing and hot foil embossing.

Papers: Tengujo 9gm, Mitsunata 21gm, Kozo Inbe 42gm, Kozo Murakumo 70gm.

See also: The CODEX papers X Vol 4-2024 pp32-42 - a dialogue with Stephen Blackwell,

who teaches Russian literature at the University of Tennessee.

Reference note:
A research based visual exploration of Vladimir Nabokov's parallel passions as a writer and an entomologist, referring to his groundbreaking work on the Polyommatus blue butterfly. The colours of the book covers and iridescent paper draw attention to the UV-light-reflective structure of the butterflies’ wings.

Regarding the butterflies, Bergelt relies on evolution, taxonomy, DNA studies, and quantifiable facts, whereas the life of the writer remains a puzzle of patterns, crosswords, linguistic questions, chess problems and word games.

Exhibition notes:
Gaia: Dialogue between the book arts, natural sciences & plant humanities. JBCBA, WAM. Curated by David Paton & Ciara Struwig. 16 September – 12 December 2025

Ref: GB/30532