This miniature book was created entirely by hand for one of my typography projects during my design degree. It was published in the German publication Output, issue 04, in 2001. This magazine showcases the best of student design work from around the world.

Background: In December 1995, the former editor-in-chief of French Elle magazine, Jean Dominique Bauby, found himself completely paralysed and mute after suffering a major stroke. Rather than allowing himself to sink into despair, Bauby wrote his autobiography ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ by dictating to an assistant using one eyelid.

The brief: To visually and typographically translate one chapter from the Diving Bell and the Butterfly into a multi-dimensional piece.

The chapter I was given was ‘Yet another coincidence’ where Bauby draws a parallel between himself and the somewhat sinister character, Noirtier de Villefort, from ‘The Count of Monte-Christo’ by Alexander Dumas. Like Bauby, Noirtier suffered from locked-in syndrome. Interspersing portions of an old copy of ‘The Count of Monte-Christo’ and the chapter ‘Yet another coincidence’, I created this 1-inch by 1.5-inch volume.

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