Reinterpreted Facsimile: N.E. Thing Co. Ltd. Companies Act (2020)

This thesis questions the definition of facsimile pertaining to artist’s books and examines what information gets lost by adhering to it when remaking culturally significant texts. The primary case study is the physical republishing of Companies Act (1978), by the N.E. Thing Company — a rare book that summarizes a historically influential Canadian conceptual art duo. The aim of this thesis is to clarify the methodology and process used to reproduce this book and draw attention to its associated implications toward the field of print design. The standard logic of reprinting a manuscript generally follows the idea of facsimile reproduction, which is described by leading publishing authorities like Manfred Kramer as reproducing manuscripts as close to the original as possible. The aim of this thesis project is to expand on this concept by proposing the concept of a reinterpreted facsimile that adds contextual elements to the republished manuscript that would not exist otherwise. The case studies throughout this thesis have found that in at least this particular instance, Kramer’s goal of exact verisimilitude has many shortcomings. The conclusion of my work explores and defines the idea of a reinterpreted facsimile that productively blurs the line between art and print design.