#4 Moksu
By Ida Hong
This beauty is from the Korean publisher SOMEBOOKS, i mentioned them in my Bologna 2025 round up so thought I would pick this one off the shelf to show you…
I bought this book at Bologna 2023, it was the first time I had come across this publisher but their work is incredible. It is run by Cho Sun Kyung, who also runs SIP (Some Institute of Picture Books). They make small batches of hand bound books, that are exquisitely printed. Moksu was created by Ida Hong and published by SOMEBOOKS in 2022.
Its a vibrant title about a carpenter who makes his own coffin, starting and ending in the forest. It is one of those books that captures your attention and not just to the colour palette.
It is sad but uplifting and beautiful. Ida Hong’s artwork is precise but also psychedelic, its such a visually pleasing book. The first time I read it I don’t think i made the connection till the end that it was his own coffin he was making. I can’t pin point exactly what appeals to me about this one, its just great. Some times the simple ideas work the best.
One of the things that i like about SOMEBOOK’s is the simple and unassuming covers, it is an invitation to explore the insides. They also including interesting binding and colours. You might think they are more artist book over picture book, but this is what I like about their output. They are daring not only in form but in the stories they tell too. I hope i can bring more to my shelves and hopefully to Shelf Editions too.
Happy Reading!
Very cool, Helen! There’s something really 1970s about that palette. It reminds me a bit of something I can’t quite put my finger on. Love these posts! X
As a Buddhist, with different understandings of afterlife, or next life, making his own coffin would have an entirely different connotation to the carpenter than to most people in a Western point of view of death, funeral traditions, etc.
Beautiful!
( did you cycle with me to the little temple near PZCC and see the red coffins waiting use?