"Der Richter und sein Henker" reimagined
Result of a semester project in Typography at HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt's "Der Richter und sein Henker" remains one of the cult classics of German Crime Literature. It's a gripping detective novel that follows Inspector Bärlach as he investigates the murder of a former police chief.
Bärlach suspects a fellow officer of the crime and navigates a complex web of deception and betrayal to uncover the truth, ultimately revealing corruption within the police force.
The novel delves into themes of justice, morality, and the abuse of power, leaving readers questioning the nature of authority and the lengths one will go to in the pursuit of justice.
The whole book – as it is a story about the police after all – was redesigned to not resemble a book after all, but to look like a file you would find in any ordinary government administration's cabinet.
I seperated the text of the book into two parts:
In the first part, there are only aspects and facts shown to the reader which are obvious for the public. These are recorded in the "Akte" (file) and are easily accessible as they'd be in a real police file.
The second part of the book consists of passages in the text where there are hints on who could be the culprit. These passages were taken out of the original text and were put into the "Verschlusssache" (classfied information). The reader gets notified in the "Akte" when there is additional information to be read in the "Verschlusssache" – but are you ready to break the official seal protecting the classified information?
