Leaflet of Eden

A Bad Quarto publication

Leaflet of Eden

Leaflet of Eden, a stack of them.
Nick Montfort, 2017–2018
4.25" × 5.5" twice-folded leaflet with type-in computer program.

Leaflet of Eden presents a type-in computer program originally commissioned by Decoy magazine in 2017. The project was first printed on a Commodore MPS-801 printer and scanned to produce a digital image for Decoy subscribers. In 2018 a printed edition was done using an Epson LX-800 printer and a Kaypro II portable computer, running CP/M. This Kaypro II was donated by author Lydia Davis to The Trope Tank, where most Bad Quarto production facilities are located.

The leaflet contains the full HTML source of a Web page, “Untitled [Eden],” including a JavaScript program to generate text. In the style of computer magazines of the early 1980s, this is a printed program meant to be typed in and tried out. The user is invited to get the program working and then modify and rework it, to understand programming better and to learn more about the potential of computing for literary art.

Edition of 50, numbered and signed by the author.

$6. Sold out.

Bad Quarto.