Today, more than 1,500 books are banned from schools in the United States, according to the literary and free speech advocacy group Pen America. Alarmed by this censorship, a Canadian creative agency came up with the idea of creating a fireproof book with the help of a company specialized in bookbinding. Seduced by the idea, the American publishing house Penguin Random House decided to produce a copy of this book, The Unburnable Book, to raise funds for the Pen America association.
Penguin Random House has chosen for this special edition the best-selling The Handmaid's Tale . Since its release in 1985, this book by writer Margaret Atwood - published in France under the title The Scarlet Handmaiden - has often been the target of criticism. In 2019, this dystopian novel is still listed as the seventh most challenged book due to profanity, vulgarity and sexual overtones, according to the American Library Association.
How to make a non-flammable book according to The Gas Company
The Unburnable Book was designed by Canadian design studio Rethink and produced in Toronto by The Gas Company, a graphic arts and bookbinding company. Led by Doug Laxdal, the binder is the one clients and fellow binders turn to when they are told it can't be done.
To create this unique work, the bookbinder used only fireproof materials, of which he reveals the following list
The jacket is printed on black Cinefoil, an aluminum heat protection material. The hard cover is a 3mm thick phenolic sheet, traditionally used in the manufacture of electronic components, coated with Cinefoil.
The paper on the inside pages has been replaced by white coated heat protection sheets used in the production of films to cover the spots.
The binding is sewn with nickel wire, usually used in electronics.
The edgeband is a woven stainless steel tape known from the aerospace industry and the high temperature adhesive is Kapton, a polyimide film from Dupont.
And the printing in CMYK and white was done on an Oki digital press.
"I never thought I would try to burn one of my own bookseuros"
In the video presentation of the book, we can see Margaret Atwood, herself, flamethrower in hand, testing a prototype.
"I never thought I'd try to burn one of my owneuro books and fail, she comments in a press release . The Handmaid's Tale has been banned several times, sometimes by whole countries, like Portugal and Spain during the time of Salazar and Franco, sometimes by school boards, sometimes by libraries. Let's hope we don't reach the stage of book burning, as in Fahrenheit 451 . But if we do, let's hope that some books will prove to be non-flammable - that they will travel underground, like the banned books in the Soviet Union."
The Unburnable Book is being auctioned online by Sotheby's through June 7. Proceeds from the auction will support Pen America's work for freedom of expression.
This work, which plays with fire, is reminiscent of the book by the Breton collective Super Terrain which, in 2017, created an edition of Fahrenheit 451, whose pages had to be heated to see the text appear .
