'Book Club' is a passion project beginning in 2019 and contains a series of unsolicited cover artwork redesigns for every book that I read in my book club. Enjoy!
#01 - The Vegetarian by Han Kang
#01 - The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Synopsis: Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more “plant-like” existance, commits a shocking act of subversion. As her rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, Yeong-hye spirals further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshy prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically, a tree.
Designers notes: I loved reading this book and was especially moved by Act 3 - told from the point of view of the main character's sister, In-hye. I wanted to show the two sisters on the front cover and I wanted the design to be stark and bold to reflect the style of Han Kang's writing. Depicted on the cover are the two sisters, represented by 2 double helixes which symbolize humanity and family which I felt were important themes in this book. In-hye, on the left, is depicted standing, symbolizing decorum. In contrast, her sister Yeonge-hye (right) represents subversion and appears inverted in a hand-stand, a pose she takes on physically towards the end of the book as she wills herself to shed her human body and transform into a tree. The colours are taken from the Korean flag, which features in it's center a red and blue Taegeuk (or Taijitu) which is the symbol for balance. While most of the characters themselves are quite out of balance, I felt like the sisters had some sense of harmony in their contrast, In-hye remaining devoted to her sister and son, while Yeonge-hye abandons all social norms completely. I wanted the cover to show this contrast and overall reflect the clean, beautiful, and sometimes disturbing prose of Han Kang.
Designers notes: I loved reading this book and was especially moved by Act 3 - told from the point of view of the main character's sister, In-hye. I wanted to show the two sisters on the front cover and I wanted the design to be stark and bold to reflect the style of Han Kang's writing. Depicted on the cover are the two sisters, represented by 2 double helixes which symbolize humanity and family which I felt were important themes in this book. In-hye, on the left, is depicted standing, symbolizing decorum. In contrast, her sister Yeonge-hye (right) represents subversion and appears inverted in a hand-stand, a pose she takes on physically towards the end of the book as she wills herself to shed her human body and transform into a tree. The colours are taken from the Korean flag, which features in it's center a red and blue Taegeuk (or Taijitu) which is the symbol for balance. While most of the characters themselves are quite out of balance, I felt like the sisters had some sense of harmony in their contrast, In-hye remaining devoted to her sister and son, while Yeonge-hye abandons all social norms completely. I wanted the cover to show this contrast and overall reflect the clean, beautiful, and sometimes disturbing prose of Han Kang.
