A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift

2015

Nos 1-5 of a limited edition of 35. Full hand dyed alum tawed goatskin with inset panels of reverse offset printed alum tawed goatskin and red calfskin inlays, top edge graphite, red calfskin endbands, doublures reverse offset printed on Losiny Handmade paper from the Czech Republic, endpapers are distressed aluminium leaf gilded from behind. Accompanied by a portfolio containing a full suite of the lithographs and a full suite of the poems.

This monumental work was created to mark the 350th anniversary of the birth of Jonathan Swift in 1667. A republishing of his satirical essay “A Modest Proposal”, it was designed, typeset and printed by Jamie Murphy at The Salvage Press, with nine new poems in response to the original text by Jessica Traynor, ten lithographs by David O’Kane. Each binding depicts a theme, all explored by Swift in his essay but now just as relevant in modern day Ireland - Abortion, Homelessness, Religious Persecution, Social Housing, Immigration (images licensed from The Irish TImes).