La culture de poche by Hubert Damisch

This edition of La culture de poche (“pocket culture”) was made by Benoît Canaud as a DNAT student project at ÉSAD Valence. It was self-published in 2016. The text is set in Totentanz Regular and Italic (Yoann Minet) and Spartan Classified Heavy (Linotype).

The publication measures 130×195 mm with a total of 80 pages. It is printed on Fedrigoni Arcoprint Edizioni 85g/m² paper, with a cover made from offset paper commonly used for consumer product packaging.

In this book, the philosopher Hubert Damisch, who criticized “la culture de poche” in 1964, remains skeptical about its implications and claims that it has created a false sense of abundance. It is hard to believe that the paperback book belongs to the natural and familiar landscape within us. It neither debates nor offers any hint about how such a debate might unfold. Yet, the literary year of 1964 was marked by a sharp polemic against small-format publishing.

With the constraints of printing plates and a limited number of 80-page sequences, as referenced in the first edition of Jost Hochuli’s book, Damisch’s indictment revolves around two texts: by journalist Antoine de Gaudemar and novelist Pierre Assouline. A quick examination of the 10|18 editions raises the question: is the paperback a product in itself, or something more? As Paul Valéry said, “Nothing leads more surely to barbarism than an exclusive attachment to pure reason.”