Number nine of the CODE(X)+1 Monograph Series. The Mechanical Word is an extended essay on the eponymous five volume artwork by the London based artist Karen Bleitz, a founding member of the ARC collaborative that grew out of Ron King's legendary Circle Press. It is illustrated throughout in black, white, and red, and contains four pages of full color photographs.

"Whenever asked to talk about The Mechanical Word, I begin by saying, 'The Mechanical Word is a series of books in which I constructed a mechanical language composed of cogs, cranks, levers and gears...' I have learned, however, that as soon as I say 'mechanical language', I am immediately bombarded with a thousand questions such as, 'What's a mechanical language? What does it look like? How does it work? What's it for anyway?' At the time that the project began, I had been looking at various properties of language. I was particularly interested in its power to define, and through definition create, the things, people, and events that take place in the world. In the hands of the media, I could see that words had the power to turn a cloned sheep from a miracle - to a monster - and back into a miracle within the space of a page." - Karen Bleitz

This limited edition of 500 copies was designed and printed by Peter Koch with the assistance of Jonathan Gerken.