The issue 17 of Un Sedicesimo is both a literary homage and an experiment in graphics. The year 1966 marked the publication of Nanni Balestrini’s novel Tristano (Tristan) “no plot and no characters”, which used a combination of techniques to make up a random text that differed from book to book.
In this Sedicesimo – deliberately entitled Isotta (Isolde) – the “text” is not made up of letters, words and sentences but the signs used for checking print quality. The abstract signs are formed here by randomly crossing and mixing the inks during printing, thus becoming the most important features in a graphic design created by chance and error, with each copy of Un Sedicesimo being unlike the others.
