Monforte d’Alba. Storia di un’eresia
Book and CD design

In 2022 the Municipality of Monforte d'Alba decided to re-propose and tell the general public the story of the Cathar heresy that had involved the village around the year 1000. The initiatives and contents would have been varied and above all heterogeneous.

The central and supporting element would have been an essay by the engineer Domenico Garelli who first investigated the heresy in Monforte in 1978 and was the starting point for the first costume representation in the streets of the village in the 1980s. Besides the reprinted essay: a new project by Cesare Malfatti of songs inspired by the subject; a contribution by Fredo Valla, director and screenwriter of a documentary on the great European heresies in the Middle Ages; a black and white reportage of today’s Monforte by Bruno Murialdo; the story by those who organized the first historical re-enactment in Monforte; tourist information on the village together with a complete Cathar bibliography.

The index of the book thus becomes the cover of the book, I could not think of a better way to explain all this immediately and clearly. In the body of the book, the six sections are highlighted by a clear and strong opening: large typography on a black background. The black pages interrupt the flow of the 150 pages made up almost entirely of text.
The other important element is the packaging. Unfortunately I had to give up the much desired Bodonian binding which seemed to me to dialogue perfectly with the Cathar dualism ... I therefore opted for an embossed canvas dust jacket.
The font for titling is the third important aspect: the contemporary brutalism of the Darker Grotesque font gave me no hesitation right from the start.