The Schmetterschwanz Manuscript
About this ebook
The introductory essays and notes offer yet another layer of mystery, for they are written not from the author’s point of view but from that of fictional characters, scientists from the Kingdom of Word—an imaginary country full of petty bureaucrats and pedantic librarians who worship scientific determinism and frown upon the untamed imagination of “undisciplined minds.”
The juxtaposition between the frivolously nonsensical illustrations and the desperate attempts of the clerks in their search for meaning is where Alphadesigner’s true talent shines—he brilliantly emulates the role of an impartial observer, satirising but also empathizing with both sides in the dispute.
Existing somewhere between pseudoscientific satire and surrealist eroticism, The Schmetterschwanz Manuscript is a brilliant addition to Tsvetkov’s Apophenia series, offering an alternative look at its picturesque world.
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About the author
Alphadesigner is a creative alter-ego of interdisciplinary artist Yanko Tsvetkov, specialized in visual forms of expression like book design, typography, photography, illustration, and cartography. Among his most notable projects is Mapping Stereotypes—a vast collection of satirical maps that became an instant Internet sensation in 2010 and continues to inspire cartographic memes to this day. Alphadesigner has received worldwide acclaim for his typographic reinvention of medieval Cyrillic and Glagolitic scripts. Since 2011, he is the cover designer of the German literary magazine Krachkultur. He has designed, typeset, and illustrated all books by Yanko Tsvetkov.
Yanko Tsvetkov is a Bulgarian-born interdisciplinary artist who lives in Spain, writes in English, and publishes books in France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Turkey, China, and South Korea. He has visited several continents, traversed thick jungles, picnicked in scorching deserts, and booked a few taxis in crowded metropolises. He leads a second life as a caped superhero who fights prejudice with his giant laser.
