"Learning that you can just buy ISBNs is like learning that you can just walk into a high-end designer store and touch things. It seems like there should be a more rigorous process to filter out the grubby-fingered like me, but there isn't. Apparently you can just buy ISBNs online. "It's actually so weird. You go on a website called bowker.com, which is like an independent entity, and it costs like $200 to buy 10 ISBNs," Mabel Capability Taylor told me."
"I first discovered Mandylion when I found their copy of The Morgesons in a bookstore and was entranced by the cover design and jacket copy, which admonished the reader to "open carefully." The book was also wrapped in plastic, which I assumed was some kind of statement about its exclusivity and preciousness as an object, but which I later learned was just to protect the pages during shipment."
"Now, Porsella is getting her PhD in art history, and Taylor works at the Met, so they work on Mandylion Press before and after regular work hours. The pair find books on Project Gutenberg and re-release them in new editions that have been recontextualized, with new forwards written by Porsella and Taylor, visual glossaries with images of art and artifacts referenced in the works, and new cover art and jacket copy."
Buying ISBNs is straightforward through Bowker.com; ten ISBNs cost roughly $200. Mabel Capability Taylor and Madeline Porsella founded Mandylion Press to unearth lost literary gems written by women and unconventional nineteenth-century authors. The founders met in graduate school during a tutorial about chairs and now balance Mandylion with work and doctoral study; Taylor works at the Met and Porsella is pursuing a PhD in art history. Mandylion identifies public-domain texts on Project Gutenberg and reissues them as recontextualized editions with new forewords, visual glossaries, redesigned covers, jacket copy, and protective packaging.
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