Carolina Incerti's A Book for Making Books Tears Apart to Teach Self-Publishing

Eight tear-out templates for zines and books form the core of Carolina Incerti's A Book for Making Books, a hands-on self-publishing guide released in 2025. The graphic designer and researcher developed the project from her Masters research Open Books: Collective Practices for Self-Publishing at Art Academy Bergen in Norway, where she founded a book club of the same name that met weekly so students and educators at every experience level could bind books together. Her stated aim was to shift design education away from a perfect final outcome toward collective autonomy achieved through experimentation. Finding existing instructional resources either too complex or short on practical tips, Incerti built a guide that teaches through making, comparing it to a paper version of a video tutorial or furniture assembly instructions. The eight templates, ranging from multi-section stitch books to one-page zines, were tested and refined by book club participants. Playgrounds shaped the primary colour palette, and the body copy is set in CirrusCumulus, an open-source typeface by Clara Sambot chosen for its childlike handwriting quality. Photography is by Franka Cläre Pohl.