Pyrolysis

Carley Gomez and Levi Sherman
2016

In 2014 Carley Gomez and Levi Sherman traveled to Colombia’s coffee region to see for themselves how the representations of coffee production they see in US advertising differ from the reality. They arrived amidst labor unrest which had begun as they first planned the trip and continued on and off throughout the production of this book, culminating in the summer of 2016.

Pyrolysis interweaves news reports, advertising copy, and a report of our own time in Colombia to examine the contradictions between reality and representation, as well as the inherent contradictions in the mode of production that dominates the coffee industry. Even as the book raises the possibility of change, the influence exerted by the past on the present manifests in a ceaseless boom-bust cycle and a predictable pattern of violence. It is this inevitable conflict which the smooth facade of advertising and propaganda must cover, and which remains discernible beneath these efforts.

Pyrolysis was offset printed and hand-bound in an unnumbered edition of 125. The covers and textblock were printed on 80# French Smart White Cover and Text, respectively. The book has 20 pages and measures 8.5 x 5.5 in..

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