Singing / Breathing / Trembling

Singing / Breathing / Trembling is a three-pamphlet limited edition box set inspired by the rainbow lore of the Mexican Nahua as it has been preserved in the sixteenth century Florentine Codex, which was collected and written by the Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagún. The set includes a sequence of rainbow paintings inspired by the Codex, along with a poem-translation and an essay on the text.

Jen Hadfield is a writer and visual artist based in Shetland. Jen has published three collections, Almanacs (Bloodaxe), Nigh No-Place (Bloodaxe) and Byssus (Picador), which have won prizes including the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Award, and an Eric Gregory Award. Her fourth collection The Stone Age is due out with Picador in early 2021 and she is currently writing a book of essays about Shetland.

This box set includes:

• Singing: A creative essay on the rainbows of the Florentine Codex. 24pp

• Breathing: A book of rainbows. Paintings by Jen Hadfield. 48pp

• Trembling: A poem translation, set amongst further rainbows. 28pp

• A rainbow card signed by Jen Hadfield.

The text of Singing / Breathing / Trembling is set in Espinosa Nova, a revival type based on the Roman types cut and introduced by the sixteenth century printer Antonio de Espinosa, who is said to have been the first punch cutter in Mexico. It is printed on Mohawk Superfine papers in a limited edition of 125 copies, 115 of which are available in this signed box set edition.

Singing / Breathing / Trembling sold out very quickly. A simple pamphlet text-only version is now available in our Offcuts series. Please visit here for more details.