In July of 2025, my sister graduated from University with a first - something she was immensely proud of. To show my own pride, and to give her something to commerate it, I typeset, printed, and bound her dissertation into a lovely little hardback book.

Given the title of the dissertation (‘Oh, that’s the gay area’, The Influence of Penal Spaces on Constructions and Performances of Masculinity), and given that I like to make things fun, it seemed only right to include a bit of glitter to liven things up. I think this is really the only ‘notable’ thing I did with this project (as in to mean - the rest of the book was bound and put together in a fairly standard way). To ensure that the glitter wouldn’t adhere itself to every passing touch, as it so often tends to do, I carved a shallow well into the greyboard in the shape of the letters G A Y. A bit finicky, especially with the curves of the G, but the recessed letters help tremendously with keeping the glitter safe from harm. The rest of the cover was just bound in cardstock (a mix of grey, blue and white sheets - which I aligned and glued separately), so I’m not sure how well it will stand the test of time.

Thankfully, she was very happy with it!