‘The Scale of the Mind’, Numeral Emotions

‘Numbers are all around us. At work, on television or on the radio, all kinds of things are expressed through numbers. Just try to have a conversation without using them and you’ll see how difficult it is. And yet, we could also say the following: with numbers, we don’t feel anything.’ These words mark the beginning of L’échelle de l’esprit (‘The Scale of the Mind’), a comic book in square format in which illustrator Bunpei Yorifuji plays with numbers and scales to inject a touch of poetry into a world where everything is totalled, counted, added, subtracted or divided, often with a collateral victim: emotions. 

Bunpei Yorifuji is an illustrator and artistic director who was born in Nagano prefecture in 1973. He spent some time studying at Musashino Art University before leaving midway through his course, then created his own graphic design and illustration studio, Bunpei Ginza, in Tokyo, specialising in advertising and editorial design. The studio was behind various advertising campaigns such as those for Muji, Japan Tabacco  and Milk Japan. He has also released other books like La vie merveilleuse des éléments (‘Wonderful Life with the Elements’) and Le catalogue de la mort (‘The Catalogue of Death’).

Better visualising numerical differences

In L’échelle de l’esprit, the illustrator offers a whole host of little hints to help better visualise the difference between a million and a billion, or to picture the difference in population between China and Japan physically.

Above all, however, Bunpei Yorifuji imagines new units of measurement like the Minami, an indicator that makes it possible to measure the feelings between two people who are more than friends but not yet lovers, or the Thankyou, which determines the scale of existing sensations when an individual can count on a friend when times are tough. The author also invents the Bateau-Usine, a unit of measurement that is meant as a poetic means of calculating the feeling of burnout at work. The book lies at the crossroads between popular science and poetry.

L’échelle de l’esprit (2021), a book by Bunpei Yorifuji published by Editions B42 (not currently available in English).