Paper/Card, 2022, 35 x 140 x 20 mm

Overview

A small practical volume for the roving reader, containing several useful texts and tools that fold out from the main body.

Contents

• Yes / No Guide

• Cakes of the Bible

• Aggregate Objects

• 2-sided Ruler

  • Millimiles

  • Lightyears

• Tiny Flags

  • Help

  • Look

  • Wait

Background

It’s rare that I remember how or when I have an idea - they just sort of appear. In the case of Swiss Army Book, however, I remember exactly how it came about. I had a period of quite intense anxiety at the end of 2021 and attempted all sorts of methods to try and ease the symptoms while working on the cause. As well as massage, shiatsu and acupuncture, I had a couple of sessions in an floatation tank. Bobbing around in salt water in the dark is… all right. I didn’t find it to be a life-changing experience, but it was quite nice. And while I was floating around in Epsom salts, I had a vision. Not of God, the future, or the interconnectedness of all living things, but a book shaped like a Swiss Army Knife. I emerged determined to make that dream a reality.

Having just made several pieces that were small and fiddly to construct, I wasn’t that keen on doing so again. Wanting to get a grasp on how the pieces would interact, I made a large version of what I had in mind, thinking that the ‘blades’ of the book would be around A6 size. It was immediately clear that this was stupidly big and, despite my misgivings, it would have to be much smaller. Not as small as a real Swiss Army Knife, but certainly of a more compact size. That first humungous version wasn’t a waste of time, as there are some things that you can only know when you have an object in your hands. As an example, that first version had the books spine-out, which made putting them away a problem as the pages would get caught up in the next compartment. Flipping it around so that the spines went into the body first made the pages close as well, making it a more pleasing motion.

(At this point I’ll be honest and admit that I did entertain the notion of a beautifully made hardback version of this book made of wood, leather and brass. After a few abortive attempts to casebind a 30x30mm book, I had to admit that such a thing was beyond my capabilities and conceded that paper and card would be the best materials for me to use.)

As I went about shrinking the size of the book, I also had to think about what would be in it. It was clear that a narrative story didn’t really fit in with the concept, so I thought about non-fiction ideas that could be implemented in a very small space. Just as the swiss army knife has an assortment of tools within its body, the swiss army book should cover a number of potential situations.

There were a false starts here, which were largely to do with issues of tone. I thought about Swiss mythology and entertained creating a history of the great gnomes of Europe, but it was a bit twee and not quite right. Thinking of books that a person might turn to when up a mountain, I thought about the bible. But, as I didn’t really want to make something that was either religious or actually practical, I tried to use it in a way that wasn’t actually useful, even to the most devout theologian. I searched the bible for passages that mention cake. (Originally it was bread, but there were too many of them.)

I also wanted something that would be a practical survival guide, but obviously not that practical. I also put together a set of ‘aggregate objects’ based around a simple 1+1=2 method, which I thought was adjacent to a survival, but not actually useful. After prototyping these, my partner suggested adding in the Yes/No Guide I had previously made as a small item for my mailing list. I also created rulers using impractical measurements and three very tiny flags. In time, I’d like to print these on rigid plastic, but I suspect I won’t get to it.

Construction was both simple and fiddly. I used the Cameo cutter to create the various pieces, but a few stupid errors here and there led to some wrongly-sized pieces, which was exasperating and led to a massive crisis of confidence until I saw where I’d gone wrong.

The final piece consists of 39 pieces, 8 different paper stocks and 7 separate volumes. The binding is two screw-and-post binders There’s a little bit of glue to make some things sit flush and nice, but for the most part it just relies on things being aligned. I think it came out all right.