Concept and Design

The Essential Edition of Catch-22 is limited to 400 copies.

All three editions share the same creative concept, just interpreted in different ways. The concept stems from the absurdity of war, which Heller so aptly mocked in this cult classic. The goal was to emphasise that absurdity through illustrations and other design elements, thus enhancing the story. Therefore, there are twenty-two illustrations throughout the book, each depicting moments where Catch-22 situations were most prominent in the dialogue between the characters. All these illustrations feature at least one detail where the geometry and logic are broken, akin to the drawings of M.C. Escher, and even the typography used in title—Macula—defies geometry in a similar manner. These challenging illustrations were meticulously made by Damir Mazinjanin.

The introduction for this book was written by a Croatian historian Tvrtko Jakovina, giving an insight into circumstances which led to Korean war, which was what Catch-22 was really about. Not only does he aptly paint the picture of the events that led to the war and how it was perceived in the States, but he also draws parallels with situation in former Yugoslavia, thus providing a very unique and interesting perspective to the themes of the book.

The book comes in a vivid red slipcase, while the front cover of the book features a design of twenty-two bombs in a neat bombing pattern (which Colonel Carthart loved so much). The endpapers inside feature airplanes made in a specific pattern to create a tessellation effect, which is another nod to optical illusions used so prominently in art for this title. The book is completely printed letterpress, including all the twenty-two illustrations.

The bookmark is two-sided, featuring a bomb on one side and a plum tomato on the other side. Both were quite prominent in the story and it’s meant to represent how for some a war can is a horrible thing, while for the other’s it’s just business as usual.

The whole run will have 400 copies, with a few additional publisher’s copies for the key participants of the project that will never go to sale.

Photography: Danijel Berković & Dino Šertović.

Production and Materials

The slipcase for this edition is bound in vivid red paper, with the title blocked in with foil on both the front cover and the spine of the slipcase.

The book is bound in a luxurious blue book cloth and the design on both the front cover and the spine is screen printed. The endpapers are printed white on red paper. The entirety of the book is printed letterpress Fedrigoni Savile Row paper on our own Heidelberg Cylinder.

The bookmark is produced by careful blending of shapes of a bomb and a tomato in order to reach the desired optical illusion

Shipping

Since we put a lot of effort into creation of our books, we like to see them delivered safe and sound (and fast!) straight into your hands. That is why we ship with DHL Express, which means that your order will be trackable at all times and it’ll arrive straight into your hands. The official expected delivery time is 7-10 business days at the latest, but the average deliver time is usually around five business days. Also worth mentioning is that all our books are shipped insured for full amount.

Please be aware that although books are not subject to customs fees in many countries, they might be in yours. This may mean they’ll be held at customs for inspection, delaying the delivery time, and you may be charged a customs fee, or import tax, or something similar. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about customs clearance; customs rules of each country make the importer (the buyer—you!) responsible for these fees. Some of our customers have managed to reduce these fees by opting to do the import documentation themselves at the customs office instead of letting the courier (DHL) do it for them.