Welcome fellow booklover!

We don’t send many newsletters but when we do we try to make them count. Our intention is to keep you up-to-date with new books, new research, events and book sales. Scroll down for a sample of what you you can expect to hear from us.

Nick Hodgson talks about his book Free Mines Coal Faces at the Martin Parr Foundation — Events: Nick Hodgson presents his book *Free Mines Coal Faces* at the Martin Parr Foundation

A red book cover with the title I Also Fight Windmills. The book is covered by an inside page of a fern leaf. VIKA Books. I Also Fight Windmills by Ania Ready is a visual response to literary texts written by the modernist, trilingual and largely forgotten author of Polish origin Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska (1872–1925). — New book launches: *I Also Fight Windmills* by Ania Ready

Baby BSL Where is the Bird? The first Augmented Reality book to inspire the use of British Sign Language in Deaf and Hearing Families. — Events: Lynn Taylor-Stewart demonstrates how to sign ‘plane’ using Baby BSL: *Where is the Bird?*

Whitstable Biennale 2022 branding montage — Latest work: Whitstable Biennale branding

In the Shadow by Leonie Hampton shown at The Performing Photobook, part of Format Festival '23 — Exhibitions: *In the Shadow* by Leonie Hampton shown at The Performing Photobook

Director Victoria Forrest welcomes visitors to the VIKA exhibit at Format Festival — And if you see Victoria at a book fair, please come and say hello!

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Environmental Considerations. Design VIKA are one of few designers to reverse engineer book design from the production line. Page size, pagination and realistic print runs optimise and reduce wastage (see opposite). The choice of inks used was also minimised. Photographs were printed as duotones, and colour was used sparingly to enhance the texture of the recycled papers. Printer Printed using vegetable inks at Taylor Brothers, a carbon balanced printers certified by both the FSC and the World Land Trust. Chosen for close proximity to VIKA negating international shipping, couriers, and press-passing. Paper Printed on Fedrigoni’s Recycled Materica Viva: FSC certified, ECF free, Acid free, Heavy metal absent, selected secondary fibres. Paper is further carbon balanced through The World Land Trust, an international conservation charity endorsed by Sir David Attenborough. Papers used are: Woodstock: a pulp coloured, recycled, uncoated paper with 80% recycled fibres and 20% ECF virgin fibres, FSC certified, smooth finishing. Symbol Freelife Matt: an environment-friendly ECF paper, FSC certified. High content of recycled material with a 40% minimum recycled guarantee. Triple blade coated on both sides with matt finish. This material was challenging to use with the ink denisities for such dark images. We found that the recycled fibres are shorter and flakier than pristine fibres, meaning that small white dots appeared in some books. To negate this, dots were hand spotted by the printer and the artist. Such imperfections are the cost of sustainable materials. We must stop holding recycled stocks to the same bar of quality as pristene materials. We must learn wabi sabi and embrace what these imperfections represent. Cloth Bound using Winter & Company’s Toile Ocean, the first book cover material made from recycled polyester yarn derived 100% from ocean bound plastic and coated with water-based acrylic. For every metre sold, 1% of turnover goes to clean water projects. This material was challenging to use as it does not adhere easily to recycled board. We are using the cloth’s reverse side as we wanted the bright red colour and so were not using it as designed. We needed to test several glues to get the fabric to adhere well. Foils The cover is blocked using Foilco vegan, recyclable biodegradeable, compostable foils supported by the Zero Foil 2 Landfill scheme.

Sustainable publishing

A new Gold Standard

Signs of Progress

The Bookseller

VIKA designs books and brands that showcase the work of the artists and organisations of the future. We combine the conceptual rigour of book arts and the high production values of fine art publishing with the dynamism and connectivity of creative technologies.

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A free VIKA Book of Books

We have FREE exquisitely manufactured, hand-stitched and lithographically printed, Book of Books for potential future clients to experience the production quality of VIKA books.