Almost Language

This first issue in a series centered around the miracle of human communication brings together "exemplars from the world of language ... explicitly for your enjoyment."

The introduction tells us: "Communication is without a doubt magical. There doesn't appear to be any reason that anything in the world ought to be able to communicate with anything else. And yet here we are, reading and writing, wiggling and watching other things wiggle."

Almost Language No. 1 is twelve large-format, risograph-printed pages of found and original image and text. Each spread is an adventure in design and interpretation — you are invited to jump into the kool-aid, swim around, and explore it at your leisure, lifting up rocks and peering behind curtains to discover what hidden delicacies lie waiting. An encounter with Almost Language is inevitably an encounter with a variety of creatures, personalities, sensibilities, and "the continual discovery of fresh types of nonsense." Learn to read your future in the yolk of an egg, get relationship advice from a snail, and augment your verbal repertoire with the poetic phrases of wood-workers' jargon.

Most texts are in English, with the introductory text appearing in both English and German.

"Breathe on it even a little bit, and you set into motion all manner of surprise."

Featuring writing and artwork from:
@anybody_can_make_anything
Alfonso Binuto
luigi conidi
Delta_Ark
Emanuensis
Jane Kasdano
Benny Lichtner
Alice Lipparini
Martin Lundfall
Michael Sumner
Melody Sumner Carnahan
Karim Ungar
Luisa Ungar
Isaac Wonder
Marf Wonder
Marieke de Zwaan

Designed by Benny Lichtner and printed in Berlin, Germany in an edition of 400.