Smoke Proofs

Smoke Proofs argues for an approach to trade publishing which returns to its printerly roots, one in which the characteristics of various tools and techniques are considered alongside the broader implications of their use in the culture. Whether he’s discussing ebooks, the de-professionalization of typography, the design of poetry books, the fetish for colour pictures on book covers, or our complicated relationship with the notion of ‘beauty’, Steeves continually points the reader back to his or her own responsibility for the preservation and use of that amazing, wily and robust cultural tool – the book.