Inspired by the ornamental and structural details of Bombay’s Art Deco architecture as well as vintage advertisements found in The Times of India newspaper archives, I created a suite of editioned prints a Vandercook letterpress. The prints are stored in cloth-bound boxes that included an introduction and colophon, handset with metal type, and a reference map of the Fort district. Each print bears a reference letter that corresponds to a point on the map, indicating the locations of the office buildings, cinemas, and apartments that the illustrations were based on. 

This project was completed in conjunction with my 2016 honors thesis, Swadeshi Moderne: Aesthetics, Politics, and Appropriation in Bombay’s Art Deco Insurance Buildings.

The project continued with the development of suite of four letterpress prints depicting patterned doors from commercial Art Deco buildings in Bombay’s Fort district.