Solastalgia

Solastalgia is a term coined over a decade ago by Australian professor of sustainability Glenn Albrecht, which he. defined as “the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immedi­ate assault … a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home.” He originally described this emotion as being familiar to people who lived in sacrifice zones— lands decimated by open-pit mining, or clear-cut logging. But it is quickly becoming, in an era defined by climate change, a universal human experience.

This book is about islands, both real and imagined, that are in the process of disappearing, and the stories that we tell ourselves about them. The book begins with utopian speculation, and then turns to the very real islands of Nauru and the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific, both places under immediate threat from climate change. Solastalgia considers why remote miniature worlds surrounded by water are sites for both exploitation and imagination.

Printed on a risograph and a Vandercook Universal I, using metal type, pressure prints, woodcut, linocut, and polymer plates on a variety of French Paper Company papers and some glassine.

Edition of 40 books bound in a sewn boards structure, foil stamping on the spine and cover. Housed in a custom slipcase. 5.75″ x 8″ closed; 172 pages.

Copies are available for order for $750; contact me for information.