{"id":1284,"date":"2025-12-23T16:20:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/?p=1284"},"modified":"2025-12-23T21:05:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:05:40","slug":"issue-59-3-hypertangible-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-hypertangible-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Constructing the Hypertangible Novel: Writing and Design as Process"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"sitecontainer\">\n<div class=\"pagecontainer\">\n<article class=\"vj-article\">\n<div class=\"articlesidebar\">\n<h5>Issue 59.3<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-editorial\/\">Word | Image | Space | Materiality | Experience<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-legibility-readability\/\">Beyond (Type)Face Value: A Systematic Literature Review Examining Design Factors Influencing the Legibility and Readability of Typography<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-bilingual-cover-design\/\">Scripts in Dialogue: Reinterpreting Visible Language Covers through Bilingual Design Workshops in Kuwait<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Constructing the Hypertangible Novel: Writing and Design as Process<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-sensational-design\/\">Sensational Design: Layout and Display Typography in the Visual Rhetoric of Information Disorder<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-textile-tickets\/\">The Visual Language of Textile Tickets in 20th-Century British India: A Collection from B. Taylor and Co.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-ar-campus-wayfinding\/\">Augmented Reality for Campus Wayfinding: Enhancing Navigation Efficiency and Student Social Engagement \u2014 A Case Study of Leeds University Union<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-james-mosley\/\">Professor James Mosley, a Memoir<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-michael-twyman\/\">Professor Michael Twyman<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-3\/VL-59.3-Full-Issue.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Download Issue 59.3 \u27a4<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articlecontent\">\n<h1>Constructing the Hypertangible Novel: Writing and Design as Process<\/h1>\n<h3>Berta Ferrer<\/h3>\n<h4 style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">University of Reading, UK (berta[at]arquitectadelibros.com)<\/h4>\n<div class=\"abstractbox\">\n<p><span class=\"smallblueheading\">Abstract:<\/span> As the printed book co-exists with the influence of the digital, narratives become hybrid and are transformed into documents in which the content can very easily flow from one form to another. As a result of this, the first decades of the 21st century have seen the emergence of publications that challenge traditionally orthodox reading practices. This article examines the response to the digital development in novels that foreground the material dimension of the narrative and are print-specific. These works do not reject the digital realm but absorb its characteristics and expand the possibilities offered by the material dimension of the book. By analyzing Graham Rawle\u2019s Woman\u2019s World and its process of creation through the collage and cut-up techniques, this article aims to show how design can contribute to foreground the physical dimension of literature in novels with hypertangible qualities. This examination draws attention to design being embedded in the writing process that constructs both material and narrative dimensions. Findings show that these novels can be a product of a \u2018designwriting\u2019 process, in which design serves both as a tool to shape a narrative, and as a process that expands it and creates an object that offers an embodied reading experience. Ultimately, this highlights the importance of physical reading in the age of digital media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"keywordsbox\">\n<p><span class=\"smallblueheading\">Keywords:<\/span> book design; creative process; hybridity; materiality; print<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"viewarticlebtn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-3\/VL-59-3-Ferrer-8854.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"articlepdfviewer\">\n<object \ndata=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-3\/VL-59-3-Ferrer-8854.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-3\/VL-59-3-Ferrer-8854.pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" style=\"border: none;\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/object>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"authorbox\">\n<p><span class=\"smallblueheading\">Author<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Berta Ferrer<\/strong> is the Architect of Books (Arquitecta de libros), an expert in unconventional narratives and in books that foreground their materiality. Holding a Ph.D. in Typography and Graphic Communication from the University of Reading, as well as MAs in Graphic Design and Architecture, she specializes as a graphic designer, researcher, lecturer and writer in book and editorial design. Her creative and scholarly work delves into the potential of the book as a physical object in the digital age. She currently is Programme Leader at the BA in Graphic Design &#038; Digital Media at LABA Valencia in Spain, and also teaches on the BA in Graphic Communication and the MA in Communication Design at the University of Reading in the UK. Additionally, she conducts international workshops and seminars on book design that encourage rethinking traditional reading practices and the material aspects of the book.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"viewarticlebtn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-3\/VL-59-3-Ferrer-8854.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Download PDF<\/a><br \/>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"articlecitebox\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"blueurllink\">DOI being generated<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cite this article:<\/strong><br \/>Ferrer, B. (2025). Constructing the hypertangible novel: Writing and design as process. <i>Visible Language<\/i>, 59(3), 326\u2013347. https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-hypertangible-novel\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>First published online May 22, 2025. \u00a9 2025 Visible Language \u2014 this article is open access, published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.<\/p>\n<p><pre>https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"vlconsortiumheading\"><strong>Visible Language Consortium:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>University of Leeds (UK)<br \/>University of Cincinnati (USA)<br \/>North Carolina State University (USA)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Issue 59.3 Word | Image | Space | Materiality | Experience Beyond (Type)Face Value: A Systematic Literature Review Examining Design Factors Influencing the Legibility and Readability of Typography Scripts in Dialogue: Reinterpreting Visible Language Covers through Bilingual Design Workshops in Kuwait Constructing the Hypertangible Novel: Writing and Design as Process Sensational Design: Layout and Display &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-3-hypertangible-novel\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Constructing the Hypertangible Novel: Writing and Design as Process&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-59-3","category-research-article","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1284"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}