Publication: Visual Editions take on the beast of a challenge that is Don Quixote

Here’s a little bit of a confession; until last week my copy of Don Quixote was sitting quite nicely on my bookshelf, sandwiched between the other classics, unread, waiting. And then Visual Editions’ new Kickstarter campaign happened, and, let’s just say Don Quixote suddenly got a lot more appealing.

Of course the ever innovative publishers have previous in reimagining and reinterpreting texts, but taking on a behemoth of a book like this is no small task. With Miguel de Cervantes’ novel running to more than 700 pages, this is by far the biggest challenge they have ever set themselves. The aim of the Kickstarter campaign is to send photographer Jacob Robinson on a two week journey in a camper van to La Mancha, Spain, to photograph his own Don Quixote to illustrate the text.

The debate over print’s place in a digitally-defined world can be abstract and rather dull but Visual Editions are among that exciting and thought-provoking band who create work that takes us beyond the theoretical. For this and so many other reasons, we really hope this ambitious project comes off and they’re not left titling at windmills.