You are outside now.
You begin to look around.
It is dusk and great trees rise before you.
For you’ve come to walk the forest’s edge.
You’ve come to Fort Denial.
- Tales of Fort Denial
Tales of Fort Denial follows the journey of a glitching adventurer who enters an unknown land/system and is drawn to search for Fort Denial while being pursued by a mysterious Creature. The making of this book has been a two year quest of its own, from conception and research, to writing, design, and finally the production of a hand-sewn letterpress and Risograph printed book. Tales of Fort Denial draws inspiration from 13th century grail quest poems, Renaissance herbals, dreams, word hoards, early video game systems and their manuals, synthesizing these into a long form poem that in turn draws the reader deeper into its world. Welcome to Fort Denial.
Book Edition Details
Tales of Fort Denial, Letterpress and Risograph book, letterpress map
Written, designed, printed, and bound by Marianne Dages :: Huldra Press, 2024. Edition of 50.
Book Size: 7.5” x 5” x .5” closed, 114 pages
Type: OCR A Standard, Adobe Jenson Pro, Futura, and Cheltenham
Images: the images are heavily altered iterations of Gustave Doré’s illustrations for Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King
Map: 12” x 18” open, the map’s icons were designed using handset antique letterpress ornaments and type
Sheet Music: The last signature of the book is sheet music for It is always our last day, an original piece of choral music composed by L Autumn Gnadinger for the book.
Binding: Multi-signature open spine french link stitch binding on tyvek tapes
- Cover: letterpress printed on Fabriano Tiziano
- Interior: letterpress and risograph printed on Parchtone and Speckletone paper by French Paper Co.
Scroll down for images and information about the Collector’s Edition, A Manual for Denial.
A Manual for Denial - Collector’s Edition.
A Manual for Denial is the collector’s edition of Tales of Fort Denial that includes unique items and prints that could be artifacts from Fort Denial's world. It is limited to an edition of five. The book is housed in a handmade clamshell box with nested, deer fur-lined compartments that contain a hand-forged "8-bit" coin, an audio cassette of "It is always our last day," and a risograph and letterpress print unique to the collector's edition.
A Manual for Denial - Collector’s Edition Details
The Collector’s Edition contains one copy of the book, Tales of Fort Denial.
Written, designed, printed, and bound by Marianne Dages :: Huldra Press, 2024. Edition of 5.
Box Size: 8.25” x 5.5” x 2.25”
Box Details: Handmade, custom clamshell box
- Cover: Duo and Dubletta bookcloth with letterpress inset titles
- Interior: The nested compartments for the coin and cassette are lined with deer hide. The cassette can be lifted with an Asahi bookcloth ribbon.
Coin: Hand-forged marine brass coin with an 8-bit symbol on each side. Made by Rossi Metal Design.
Cassette: An audio cassette of the NES chiptune version of “It is always our last day,” an original piece of music composed by L Autumn Gnadinger. Tapes recorded by Electro Spiral Sound. Vintage 90s smoky grey Fuji tape boxes and mirror silver photocopied labels.
Print: Risograph print of a glitched deer with letterpress printed text on vintage cornflower blue paper. The print is wrapped in carefully crumpled frosted mylar, with hole punched details.
