Bad Quarto is a private press (
listed in the International
Register of Private Press Names) that produces work for fun, teaching, and exchange. Some publications are also
offered for sale online (here at this site) and online via Spybeam Books. A major project of the press these
days is
Taper, our online literary magazine. The
printing/production of Bad Quarto book objects and other literary matter is done using various systems and
equipment, including:
- An Adana Eight-Five platen press, first made 1953, from c. 1975
- The Espresso Book Machines of the Harvard Book Store & the MIT Press Bookstore
- Epson & Commodore dot-matrix printers
- Standard consumer laser printers
- Flat panel displays connected to Raspberry Pi Zero computers
- The World Wide Web hypertext system from c. 1990. Work is in the collections of the Library of Artistic Print on Demand and the libraries of Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, among others.
To place an order or request printed matter in exchange for your work: Send
a note to ab@roteirporpdquar.to.
Taper
Collectively edited, Spring 2018–
Web-based literary journal for short, computational work.
Taper is Bad Quarto’s long-running online publication. The
twice-yearly journal hosts very short computational poems and other sorts of digital literary work, composed
under the strictures of poetic compression and using practices of sizecoding. (Work is limited to 2KB,
a mere 2048 bytes!) Taper is edited by a collective, independent of the publisher, that develops each issue’s
theme, selects poems, and works to authors to prepare them for publication. All of the poems in
Taper are
free (libre) software, so anyone can study, share, and remix them in any way.
- Taper #1 : A Minimal Labyrinth, Spring 2018.
- Taper #2 : Poems of Two, Fall 2018.
- Taper #3 : Triptychs and Triads, Spring 2019.
- Taper #4 : A New Trope, Spring 2020.
- Taper #5 : Pent Up, Fall 2020.
- Taper #6 : A Throw of the Dice, Spring 2021.
- Taper #7 : Wonders, Fall 2021.
- Taper #8 : 8-Bit Nostalgia, Spring 2022.
- Taper #9 : Nine Lives, Fall 2022.
- Taper #10 : Powers of Ten, Spring 2023.
- Taper #11 : Parallels, Fall 2023.
- Taper #12 : Tools, Spring 2024.
- Taper #13 : Superstitions — the call for work is out! Submissions are due Sep 13.
Our Generation
Ed. Nick Montfort, 2024
Programs + computer-generated texts from 24 author/programmers.
Open edition, 1st printing of 150.
$8.
Cheap Domains
Nick Montfort, 2023
A tiny booklet of Wake-words you can doomscrollover.
Edition of 50.
$1, and also available as barter for printed matter.
Yours Basically
Nick Montfort, 2023
A booklet (with three type-in programs) to teach Commodore 64 BASIC programming.
Edition of 20.
Idioms in Translation
Rahpael Halff, 2023
A set of three zines drawing on idiomatic Yiddish expressions, with Python code.
36 signed and numbered copies.
$12.
Mark of Help
Nick Montfort, 2022
A 256-character program generates an erratic text reflecting on Python itself.
Set of 50 unique instances.
$30.
Post-Surveillance Postcard
Juan Manuel Escalante, 2022
It’s not just people reading your mail.
60 unique cards printed.
$5.
Untitled (unmutable)
Nick Montfort, 2020
The final word on 2020.
Edition of 3 + one author’s/artist’s proof. As of 2022-06-06, two remain.
$72.
The Life is a Freestyle Quaranzine
Full Circle, 2020
A zine by rappers with poetry, art, and essays detailing entailments of the
conceptual metaphor “Life is a Freestyle.”
Edition of 100, free in PDF format.
200 (of 10,000) Apotropaic Variations
Allison Parrish, 2000
Pamphlets, each one with its own unique 200 computer-generated magic words, ready to
be cut out and used for protection.
50 unique pamphlets printed.
$5. Sold out. The author may have copies remaining.
Theft of Color
Margaret Rhee, 2015, 2020
A poem knockout printed on a card.
Edition of 50.
$1.
for the sleepers in that quiet earth.
Sofian Audry, 2018–2019
5.5" × 8" × variable (272–282) pp. book, presenting the increasingly coherent
results of a machine learning process that uses only Wuthering Heights as data.
31 unique books, produced on the MIT Press Espresso Book Machine.
$120.
Viral
Anthony Etherin, 2018–2019
A letterpress-printed palindrome contained in a 14ml polypropylene test tube.
Edition of 100.
$5.
Leaflet of Eden
Nick Montfort, 2017–2018
4.25" × 5.5" twice-folded leaflet with type-in computer program.
Edition of 50, numbered and signed by the author.
Printed on an Epson LX-800 printer using Lydia Davis’s Kaypro II.
$6. Sold out.
Hard West Turn
Nick Montfort, 2018
5" × 5" × 320 pp. computer-generated novel focused on gun violence in the United
States, drawing on the English and Simple English Wikipedias.
This is the 2018 edition; the original intention was that Hard West Turn would be published annually.
Edition of 13 (corresponding to the original 13 states) + 3 author’s proofs (red, white, and blue), numbered
and signed by the author.
Copy-edited and designed by the proprietor; Produced on the MIT Press Bookstore Espresso Book Machine.
$130.
Type
Christian Bök & Nick Montfort, 2016–2018
Folio of three 3.5" × 8.5" sheets in gold-colored case, numbered and initialed by
the authors.
Edition of 100 + 10 author’s proofs; Printed on the Adana Eight-Five.
$12.
Sliders
Nick Montfort, 2017
5" × 5" × 40 pp. book of poetry, MIT Press Bookstore Espresso Book Machine.
$9.99. Sold out.
Autofolio Babel
Nick Montfort, 2017
Unique book object. Standard/reused computer hardware, free software OS and custom
free software program.
Megawatt
Nick Montfort, 2014
5.5" × 8.25" × 252 pp. book, Harvard Book Store Espresso Book Machine.
The final copies of this edition have been printed, and the print run is sold out.
World Clock
Nick Montfort, 2013
5.5" × 8.25" × 246 pp. book, Harvard Book Store Espresso Book Machine.
The final copies of this edition have been printed. As of 2024-01-01, at least one remains, priced at $50.
