Meet Mina Bach, she loves books and we got her to tell us a bit more about her passion: Tell us about you and what you do? Aged 8 I started a neverending series of comic books about imaginary mutant family members with my little brother, drawing elaborate covers for them and stapling them without adult supervision. I’ve never stopped making zines and little books since. I have also been busy with Web design and most recently graduating from LCC with a BA in Book Arts & Design. While still a student I’ve been lucky to work and collaborate with people that love books as much as I do like the Courtauld Institute of Art at the Somerset House, The British Museum, Oxfam, Merrell Publishers, Constable & Robinson, Little Episodes, Laney Tamplin… and have just started my dream job as a full-time book designer at Nobrow. Tell us about Books will make us Free! – Mini Books? ‘The secret garden’ by Katherine Mansfield is the 7th mini book in the series after other short stories by Virginia Woolf, Saki, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Oscar Wilde. Part of the public domain now, everyone is welcome reproduce, share and read these short stories. What inspired you to make Books will make us Free! – Mini Books? The aim of Books will make us Free! is to celebrate the greatest resource in human history: public domain. All knowledge will eventually become part of it and it’s completely free for anyone to access and read the work of these great authors. What are you working on at the moment? I’m already working on new mini books with more pages, new format and design. For the first time the books will be illustrated. I’m very excited to collaborate with illustrators I really admire for this and see their response to the short stories. Currently trying to find printers, paper and sponsors that allow to keep the mini books affordable. Last but not least, what are your thoughts on affordable design? I read an essay by Swiss typographer Emil Ruder, one of my design heroes, during my first year at uni and it’s always stayed with me. Referring to book design and production he said that “the limited edition of a merely beautiful book is absurd; a book must be beautiful and cheap”. I design and make books because I want them to be read by as many people as possible hoping they inspire in them what they do to me and that means they have to be accessible – well designed – and affordable. See more of Mina Bach’s work here Twitter: @minarama  

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