Déborder Bolloré
Virginie Ribaut. License: CC BY-NC-ND.
Déborder Bolloré, faire face au libéralisme autoritaire dans le monde du livre (“Overtaking Bolloré, Fighting Authoritarian Liberalism in the publishing industry”) is a book co-published in 2025 by 128 independent publishing houses from France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada. This publishing initiative aims to highlight the influence of the reactionary billionaire Vincent Bolloré on the book industry and to warn the general public about the dangers of market concentration in the publishing sector.
The body text, which is unjustified, is set in Exécutif Moderne, a typeface inspired by IBM Executive Modern, one of the first proportional typewriter fonts. The titles are set in Aalter Black, specifically designed for this project to give it a strong identity without raising licensing issues (which are inherent in a project involving so many different publishing houses). As a metaphor for collective work, ants swarm the cover and make their way inside the book, sometimes forming lettering (as seen here on the title page).
On its dedicated website (also typeset in Aalter Back and Executif Moderne), the book is described as follow :
In 2024, several collectives called out Vincent Bolloré and made him the target of a campaign calling for the “disarmament” of his empire. It is in light of this dynamic—and following in the footsteps of anti-fascist booksellers—that we, as independent publishers, have decided to publish this book. In the face of authoritarian liberalism—which takes the form of competing major publishing and media conglomerates—we must reflect on our diversity, our unique characteristics, and our modes of action. To counter concentration, we must embrace dispersion.
With contributions by: Bakonet Jackonet, Alexandre Balcaen and Jérôme LeGlatin, Jean-Yves Mollier, Valentine Robert Gilabert, Florent Massot, Antoine Pecqueur, Amzat Boukari-Yabara, Pascale Obolo, the Editorial Committee of Éditions du Bout de la Ville, Clara Pacotte, LABo–Libraires Anti-Bolloré, Soazic Courbet, Arnaud Frossard and Julie Wargon, Tristan Garcia and Charles Sarraute, Clara Laspalas and Danièle Kergoat, Karine Solene Espineira, Thierry Discepolo, Les Soulèvements de la terre.
Virginie Ribaut. License: CC BY-NC-ND.
Virginie Ribaut. License: CC BY-NC-ND.
Virginie Ribaut. License: CC BY-NC-ND.
Virginie Ribaut. License: CC BY-NC-ND.
Virginie Ribaut. License: CC BY-NC-ND.
This post was originally published at Fonts In Use