Lexi Earle

Out October 13th, 2026 @dalkeyarchive — HACKENFELLER’S APE is Brigid Brophy’s provocative debut novel of animal rights and Cold War anxieties, now widely available in the US for the first time in decades! At the London Zoo, Professor Clement Darrelhyde has been studying Percy and Edwina, a pair of Hackenfeller’s Apes, for some time: serenading them with Mozart, learning their habits, hoping to witness the mating of this endangered species. When the Professor learns that the zoo has sold Percy to a government space program and that the ape is due to be launched on a one-way rocket trip in a matter of days, he teams up with a plucky young lockpick named Gloria in the hopes of securing Percy’s freedom. Written almost a decade before the first animal was sent into outer space, Brigid Brophy meditates on the human tendency towards violence and self-alienation. At once fable and comedy, gallivanting heist adventure and elegant philosophical treatise, Hackenfeller’s Ape reveals the human animal inside of us all. ————— In the idea that the story is satire I considered the humor of the book, and felt there was some parallels between this and Dr. Strangelove, and wanted to inject that sort of cheekiness to the book. The book was originally published in 1953, so I considered styles from back then, without making it too textbook and landed on a more comic looking cover, with Percy (the ape) literally breaking out of one of the panels. The book is largely about people arguing over Percy’s fate, will he be the first ape in space? Or will his keeper and activist work together to free him from the zoo before his fate and the rocket are sealed? And what about his budding love story with Edwina (seen in the pink composition/slide 2) In another direction (slide 3) I thought of the wayward paths Percy took in his escape, and the things that claim him or are on his mind. Darrelhyde’s record player always playing Mozart, the tree and tire swing, delicious apples, Edwina, and his fate in the rocket figuratively at his back chasing him. This direction especially interested me because it reminded me of some old Family Circus comics which were in my grandparents house.

Months spent in search of seasons. The paradox of snow on the beach, every season at the cloisters, February in Puerto Rico for a hint of summer, an October wedding and surprise snow in Utah, dog sitting, reading and the pink water

Zoetrope—halloween 2025

Cover design for THE RUINS, by Ye Hui, translated by Dong Li for @deepvellum The author and translator wanted a simple cover design, with limited neutral colors. I designed the final cover this summer, where it seemed like there were more fireflies than normal, and this poem from the book: The Fireflies In the darkness of the cabin My eyes are open, between city lights The lake probes again and again the shore From their habitat on the island They look up, at the planes’ flickering taillights And have no complaints, since Every day, every century The separation they endure falls like showers Someone turns on the headlight and eats alone A star has a sudden epiphany and runs to the horizon All these are metaphors, thus The fireflies dance around, like the seeds they sow And remain in the air The fireflies, now bright now dim Just as we live but use up all the wisdom That lights up what’s behind us

The concrete beauty of Dallas, a trip to Niagara Falls, Summer—but also Spring and Winter 2025

cover outtakes form What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium to celebrate it’s publication this month @deepvellum 🦋 The rhetorical title of the collection posits the crisis that is underway. Simonsen asks: as a species among species, all comprised of the matter of the universe, how has our compulsion to hierarchically categorize everything estranged us from ourselves, each other, and the rest of this world? It explores the human relationship with itself as an element of the natural world. The collection follows the process as the narrator reckons with estrangement from his fellow organisms, and turns to the greater materiality of the world to find continuity, connection, and solace. The author and translator were especially drawn to vintage illustrations, some of which included butterflies (this being my favorite), and specifically referenced 1800-1900s illustrations. And some especially moving passages like the ones below: 🦋 Why did I wake up, more than halfway to ash, on this morning in this new millennium. From dreams that unfolded in mountains along swollen rivers carving ravines, Macedonian in their grandeur, down into butterfly valleys, marshlands where the grass swayed in slow motion like a scene from Tarkovsky’s film Stalker. No one can rewind back to the beginning. This morning that big, light-blue butterfly was a caterpillar. 🦋 For the second and third comp in this series I was especially drawn to @thicketdesign ‘s work. Early ideas from the author and translator discussed fusing nature and anatomy, leaning into a vintage illustration style and I thought hers was PERFECT. I talked to the artist and she is very willing to work with a publisher, but it was considered too contemporary for the title. I particularly liked pairing it with what I deemed “sanatorium signage style typography” and a deep desire to justify the shortest word (see how I try to use poems) And lastly I wanted to show anatomy and nature together, as if they were viewed on a microscope slide, like within our cells is everything, with the brain at the bottom and flattened flowers butterflies and seashells as you rise to the top.

Always room for more crafts and more greenery ty for a magical evening @wifenyc @craftnightnyc

Happy Pub date to Perpetual Law by Mario Bulletin-translated by Stephen Beachy published by @deepvellum When I read the description ”a novella that puzzles from the first page with its liminal, Lynchian atmosphere.” I knew I’d be hooked. 
This novella, by Mario Bellatin Latin America’s literary prankster follows an unnamed woman known as “our woman” an unnamed country by the sea, as she searches to reach the House. There, she will be able to listen to her childhood voice. The rainy seaside really set the mood for this, as well as the liminal Lynchian atmosphere. in reading it there was a lot I highlighted, and I took a lot of inspiration from movie posters, the final approved cover I felt was a direct interpretation of Vertigo, twisting and turning and searching and spiraling towards her destination. At some point reading the book I came across a passage while Our Woman was in search of the house that contained every voice where I read it described as “an Infiniti of voices” after underlining it multiple times and dreaming about that phrase I interpreted as “a sea of voices” which turned out to have never been mentioned, but it drove my thoughts on another direction, of several different mouths talking close and at a distance, a visual sea of voices. After thinking for sometime I wondered why I liked it so much and it’s because it reminded me of the Being John Malcovich poster. I also thought it was a great opportunity to use the typeface I designed “Sesquipedalian” because of its sharp design, jagged unfinished nature, overlapping each other creating a crashing claustraphobic experience At this point I had been pretty dead set on favorite concepts but got worried because for stock photography I used myself and felt weird about sending the publisher too many pictures of my mouth, and there was more to be inspired by in the book. “The dugout of underground Departures” was a train station that was always flooded which I made out of watercolor, the approaching water, and the title dissapearing into water, since a part of me has always wanted to do a cover that looks like penmanship drills

The Road to Texas by Victor Considerant for @deepvellum @deepvellumbooks , design by me I read this book as a piece of science fiction, a proposal for an alternate reality for Texas and its manifesto. It’s so interesting to read now knowing how different Texas is from Considerants vision. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, Victor Considerant set off with a legion of over two hundred European settlers to create their own socialist utopia. Their settlement was La Réunion, just thirty miles outside of Downtown Dallas, along the scenic Trinity river. Utopian visions clashed with the harsh agrarian realities of Texas, as the settlers – academics, musicians and intellectuals – floundered in the heat, and La Réunion wilted. The original French title was “AU TEXAS” meaning and it held that title for nearly 200 years until this translation, so I wanted to find a way to relate it back to its original roots. I was inspired by printing methods of that time period and mixed contrasting type weights and borders like they did at that time as well as a block printing inspire “AU TEXAS” in the background, whose shapes almost construct a map. And as I though of a settlement (as Considerant proposed), I considered the little houses the people would have lived in and created a settlement out of the words in the white space, and used the red white and blue of the French and Texas flag. An alternate comp included the map of Dallas along the trinity river where the settlement would be, and that wound up being the endpapers, so it’s almost like two covers were chosen

👋 summer 2024

Barcelona, Girona, Figueres, and a moment of silence for the eclipse hat I lost somewhere out there

@javiersenosiaina ’s work is incredible to see. He’s an architect focused on bio-architecture, and taking cues from nature and organic forms and using that in his work. I visited Casa Organica, a housing complex of 10 in the body of a snake in homage to Quetzalcóatl, the Aztec serpent god, conjunto satelite (a four unit housing complex) and Parque Quetzalcóatl (an unfinished park inspired by the deity that touched on the kingdoms of minerals, animals, and plants). Some of his signatures are mosaics, the influence of nature, meticulous craft and curved shapes. His thoughts are that we start out curled up in the womb, with everything round and enter a world full of angles and rectangles when what we crave are these organic shapes and rounded forms, and brings those forms into his work and it really does feel comforting to sit in one of his rounded conversation pits. His work reminds me of the earthships in Taos, especially the half sunken houses that are used by both Javier senosiain and Michael Reynolds (the architect behind earthships) the houses are submerged for temperature regulation and you really don’t need heating or A/C. Although Cass Organica was built in 1984 I see a retro futurism of the 70s in it and his work, these really majestic psychedelic colorful works with some touches of art noveu. Many thanks to @adriiceron for the tours and answering all my questions