Red Butte Press Publications

Latest Release: A Secular Instrument and Scalar Instruments

A Secular Instrument and Scalar Instruments are companion books—one text- and the other image-based—published by the Red Butte Press, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah.

Craig Dworkin's A Secular Instrument reminds us in a series of succinct theses on private reading in public spaces that books are instruments not only of freedom and democracy, but also of discipline and isolation. When read, A Secular Instrument enacts the very descriptions it proposes. The text presents subtitles to what might be thought of as a short-form silent film in which the reader plays the starring role. Negative space surrounds the text on each page, focusing this meditation and pacing the performance of reading. 

Scalar Instruments was produced in response to A Secular Instrument. Setting out from the Red Butte Press, Craig Dworkin and Marnie Powers-Torrey sought scenes of reading. Leaving the library, they looked for books in the wild. Scalar Instruments presents full-spread, full-bleed Risograph-printed photographs depicting sites of reading (and potential reading) collected during their foray. While each title stands alone, they complement complicate one another when read in tandem. 

These titles can be purchased individually or together as a deluxe edition housed in a digitally-printed cloth slipcase. The text is letterpress printed on dampened Crane’s Lettra from Centaur and Arrighi cast by M&H Type. Images are two-color Risograph prints. Secular is a link-stitch and Scalara drumleaf binding; both have a library cloth soft cover. Titling is foil-stamped by Thomas Printers. Each book is 4 ¼” x 6” x ¼”. There are 75 deluxe sets priced at $250, and 100 standard copies of each title priced at $100. 

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Inquiries can be sent to redbuttepress@utah.edu. Please contact us for international orders.