When we asked Allen Jones to work on Brave New World, he was intrigued. During his long and distinguished career, he had never before combined his imagery with a work of fiction. The book’s standing as one of the high points of twentieth-century English literature makes it an appropriate subject for an artist of his stature.

Allen has a lifetime's experience of drawing, painting, sculpture and print-making. For this project, he brought the layering techniques of his screen- and litho-prints to digital print-making. This too is a first for him, and he has been working with Leslie Gerry to make his vision ready for printing. He has made twenty-nine colour illustrations, four of which are double-page and one quad-page; all five will be tabbed in to open without a stitched gutter. There are also twenty-four black-and-white drawings in pen and ink.

There is an episode in the novel where two of the main characters leave civilisation as they know it. He has marked it with a twelve-page section consisting solely of die-cut, colour images that carry the viewer along with them.

The bindings have occupied Allen and Richard Tong for a considerable amount of time. Rich says of them “Allen has provided a huge number of paintings and drawings for this edition, many of them very bright and colourful, and it has been my job to try and create bindings that work in harmony. This will be a very cool book and one that is extremely rich with artwork.”

At present, Brave New World will be published in two states, Roman and Numbered. The Numbered Edition will be limited to 225 copies and the Roman Edition to thirty copies. We are also working on a spectacular Artist's Edition that will be available at a later date.

The Numbered Edition will be signed by Allen Jones and the text printed letterpress in two colours on Mohawk Superfine 148 gsm paper by Phil Abel and Robert Hetherington at Hand & Eye Editions. The images will be printed by Hand & Eye and Empress Litho. It will have 302 pages, 230 x 170 mm. Binding will be by Richard Tong at Ludlow Bookbinders.

It will be full bound in white goatskin with Allen’s artwork printed with UV-cured ink and foil-blocked.

The book will be housed in a solander box covered with two-tone dark red Dubletta cloth and lined with white Suedel.

The price of the Numbered Edition is £530.00 exclusive of shipping. It will be available to Areté Patrons for pre-order for non-Patrons from 5pm UK time on 31 May.

The Roman Edition page is here.