Trent Pehrson
A set of codices containing legends written in Idrani, housed in an oak case
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The Dejak Codex is a three-volume work originally created as a project for an undergraduate
linguistics program. At its heart is a collection of stories told to me throughout my childhood
by various relatives, including my great-grandmother, Julia Nydeggar. I later reconstructed
these stories in Idrani, treating the project as both an exploration of language and an act of
preservation—transforming stories passed down through family memory into a written literary tradition.
The three volumes present the same body of material in three different forms. The first contains
the Idrani texts written in the Khisipokhi script; the second contains a Latinized transliteration
of the Idrani texts; and the third provides an English translation. The codices are deliberately
designed as physical artifacts rather than conventional printed books. Their pages are printed
in red and black ink on white paper and bound in covers constructed from recycled cardboard and
discarded construction paper. The covers are thickly coated with leftover latex paint and
embellished with ornamental details executed in gold leaf.
The storage case is constructed from scrap oak and finished with gold leaf. The books themselves
also depart from the conventions of English-language bookmaking: they open from left to right,
reversing the conventional orientation of English-language books. Together, the three volumes
are intended not simply as a record of stories but as artifacts of an imagined literary
tradition—bringing language, family memory, typography, translation, and handmade bookmaking
together in a single work.