Tango with Cows: Translation, Facsimile, and Commentary—a collaboration between Daniel Mellis and Eugene Ostashevsky and published by Editions 42°—is an attempt to give the English speaker access to not only the language of the original, but also its typography, design, and materiality. Every detail has been analyzed and recreated as closely as possible, from the color and texture of the wallpaper to the slight imperfections of its printed letterforms. A facsimile of the original held by the Getty Research Institute and an extensive commentary volume with a portfolio of facsimiles completes the edition.

The text has been superbly translated by Ostashevsky, an award-winning translator of the Russian avant-garde. The translation skillfully renders Kamensky’s Russian Futurist wordplay while working within the typographic constraints of the original. Its typography was recreated in English using Latin versions of the original Cyrillic typefaces. It was printed by letterpress to shed the monotonous perfection and uniformity of digital output and thereby to contain all of the subtle variations of texture and appearance of the original printing process. The wallpaper was also carefully remade using five-color screen-printing on custom-made Japanese paper, and the binding replicated. The facsimile was also bound as was the original.

The commentary contextualizes the typography, culture, and poetics of Tango with Cows with two essays by Ostashevsky, one by Mellis, a foreword by noted scholar Johanna Drucker, and five appendices. It is lavishly illustrated with well over 350 color images, seven tipped-on overlays, a double gatefold, and a miniature volvelle.