This is the first book I printed letterpress: a small artist’s book with Wislawa Szymborska‘s whimsical poem Pi. There’s a nice article from last year’s New Yorker on “Why PI Matters.” The author says: “What distinguishes pi from all other numbers is its connection to cycles. For those of us interested in the applications of mathematics to the real world, this makes pi indispensable. Whenever we think about rhythms—processes that repeat periodically, with a fixed tempo, like a pulsing heart or a planet orbiting the sun—we inevitably encounter pi….pi appears in the math that describes the gentle breathing of a baby and the circadian rhythms of sleep and wakefulness that govern our bodies…. In short, pi is woven into our descriptions of the innermost workings of the universe.”

If you don’t know about the stenciling technique pochoir, I’ve written about my attempts and how to do it here and here.