Description
In the design of this chapbook is a material poetics in addition to the poetics within. The scarlet covers and the debossed numeral ‘55’ speak directly to the Red Data Book, founded in 1964 by The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological species. Red Fifty Five references the moths of the UK which are Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable in today’s edition of the Red Data Book. The black end papers are the pitch dark of the night in which moths fly and where the fifty five can be found. The images of moths are taken from a Victorian moth book. They are reimagined as fading out much like the watercolour images in the Victorian moth book, and in reality. The binding of the chapbook is singer sewn in black thread, and this reenacts the pinned, folding-out-flat of the wings of displayed dead moths, a Victorian collecting habit that still persists. The black thread together with the ebony end papers are a materialisation of the mourning of so many lost and missing moths. The black foiled text on the rear cover shimmers when turned in the light, just like the scales that make up moth wings on a moonlit night.
This chapbook had its genesis in wishing to raise the profile of the loss of Britain’s moths. To that end, £5 will be donated to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust for every copy of this chapbook sold through our website. In addition, 55 copies have been donated to Suffolk Wildlife Trust as a contribution towards their efforts to increase suitable habitat for our local moths.
