True & False

In 2013 Errol Morris, under the guise of a test to measure readers optimism, ran a study with the New York Times.

45,000 unknowing participants were tested to find out what typeface is considered to be the most believable.

Baskerville was overwhelmingly considered the most reliable, and therefore truthful, typeface.

If the truth began to decay and become unnecessary in a Post-Truth age, what relevance would the most truthful typeface have in that world. Bastardville is the response to this.

This book contains a collection of texts dealing with the idea of post-truth and falsehood. Set entirely in a destroyed version of Baskerville, ‘Bastardville’ Created for Science Gallery Dublin’s exhibition ‘FAKE’.

True & False is a collection of essays, manifestos, articles and tweets from a variety of experts, journalists, historians, philosophers and the public dealing with the topic of Post-Truth. The publication also includes a manifesto for living in the Post-Truth age. The text is set in Bastardville, the destroyed adaptation of Baskerville which is considered to be the most believable typeface.

Baskerville was repeatedly scanned at a low dpi, printed and scanned again until the most broken down form of the type remained creating Bastardville. This type is not made to be easily legible, it is made so that the viewer struggles to read the content. Images were also distorted using a degrading bitmap.

Fully case bound, with silver foil detail embossing on front and back covers and printed on 150gsm Munken Pure Rough.

Large format posters were also made to accompany True & False while on display at Science Gallery Dublin.